Accelerator's Puppet Adventure
by J. Gentleman
Summary: I love the idea of Accel randomly appearing in various other worlds and destroying the general populace. But there's at least one world out there that's already well equipped and crazy prepared to deal with this sort of monster: Gensokyo has been putting up with gamebreaking monsters for ages. Not just any iteration of Gensokyo though, but the one riddled with puppets! Ch 10 - 100%
1. Explanation & Prologue

Explanation

I am in love with the idea of Accel randomly appearing in various other worlds (usually sent via magic or science) and utterly destroying the general populace out of rage.

I first discovered the "Accel obliterates other animes" genre from an Index/Familiar of Zero/Hell Girl crossover fic from maybe 2014 or so. I still don't know the exact reason why it's defunct now, but it was fun while it lasted.

So I decided to make my own. But I needed a series that would not only feel good to rip apart, but was also one that I knew well enough to write about. And that's a tough balance. Mad respect for those who decide to write this type of fic.

Then I realize there's at least one world out there that's already well equipped and crazy prepared to deal with this sort of monster: Gensokyo has been putting up with gamebreaking monsters for ages. But not just any iteration of Gensokyo. I'm talking about the one riddled with puppets!

I'll be taking elements from Touhou Puppet Dance Performance (namely the general plotline) b/c I love that game, as well as Gen 7 Pokemon (SuMo/USUM) to make things even more interesting. I'm thinking along the lines of Z-Crystals, but in Touhou form. TPDP already had an excess of Magic Crystals, after all.

Also, Accel is powerful enough to get a puppet of himself as his starter. Dunno if he'll have more of a team like the rest of the characters though.

Cheers!

Prologue

"So take Misaka there! Says Misaka as Misaka saw a super secret rare Gekota puppet that you can only get from there!" Is what she said.

Upon Last Order's request, the two traveled (by air) quite a distance from Academy City, and landed at a somewhat rundown Shinto shrine. The brat then immediately deviated from her course to line up at a sweets stall right outside the shrine and left Accelerator to go inside and inquire about the stupid puppet on his own.

Passing through the gate was a very disorienting feeling. Well, as an esper, he did have poor affinity with these places. To the right side of the shrine was a nerdy-looking man wearing glasses. Accelerator walked up to him and, suspiciously shifting his eyes off to the side, asked, "You wouldn't happen to know about any frog puppet from here, right?"

"Yeah, yeah! Suwako! Suwako really is the best!"

"...Hm." 'That might be the thing the brat was looking for. The sooner I can find it and make sure with the brat, the sooner we can leave and get back to my lazy days of loafing around on the couch.' Thought Accelerator.

"So do you know where I can find it?"

"Ask around. Talk to everyone here. You'll surely find what you're looking for!"

'So he also didn't know. Maybe he was just another shitty fan of the damn thing and came here to find it too.'

But the man didn't move from his spot. So Accelerator decided to ask someone else. There was a surprising number of tourists bustling about at a rundown shrine like this. They all told Accelerator about how this shrine has a special connection to a world called Gensokyo, and about how people have been been spirited away before, but nothing about a damn puppet. It was pissing him off.

Just then, after confirming that he had indeed wasted all of his time for absolutely nothing, something small and colorful came into view, floating low to the ground, smiling at him. It was a puppet, peering out of a rip in space.

Accelerator suddenly felt dizzy again, like he lost or forgot something. Ignoring the puppet, he turned back and went through the gate againーand saw nothing. There was no sweet vendor outside, and there was not a single thing to the left, right, or across the road.

"...Last Order!" She was also nowhere in sight.

Desperation growing, he tried to check if she had went inside to look for him by herself.

"Last Order!"

Accelerator crossed the gate into the shrine for the third and final time... then suddenly blacked out. The last scene he could remember before he lost consciousness was the dead-silent, rundown shrine completely devoid of lifeーthe four-eyes, the tourists, and Last Order had all vanishedーsave for the small, floating puppet in a white hat and purple dress, peering out of a rip in space.


	2. vs MarisaN

Welcome.  
To our world...

Xxxxx

"So as it turns out, he's a human who runs on some super special, high-voltage batteries." A bubbly voice full of scientific expression.

"Ugh, but humans don't run on batteries." A disdainful voice full of prejudice.

"Are you tryin' to say he's part machine?" An ordinary voce full of kleptomania.

"You mean like an android?" A modern voice full of (read: lacking in) common sense.

"No, he's definitely a human. There are no machine parts, other than this hi-tech choker. Maybe some electrical implants, but that's a different story." The first voice confirmed.

Accelerator's eyes shot open. He immediately brought his hand to the switch on his choker, only to find that it was already on. And that something spherical was hanging down from it.

"Ah, he's awake." A blonde in a black, pointed hat noticed.

"Well, that's the power of a single head from one of my Speed-style Puppets for you, enough to keep your life support contrivance up and running for the rest of your life! ...Probably." A blue-haired girl wearing a matching blue dress, a green hat, and a matching green backpack put her hands on her hips and smiled proudly at him.

Accelerator sat up from the bed he was resting on. He caught a glimpse of a smaller green hat and blue hair when he looked down. A Puppet head was hanging right under his choker's switch. But that wasn't the only odd thing. Even though his switch was on, his auto-redirect wasn't working to obliterate the head. That meant either that his vector manipulation powers weren't working, or that the puppet head was a part of him now, just like the choker. He couldn't decide which scenario was worse. But that wasn't enough to take his main worry off his mind.

"Well, don't you have something to say to her?" A green-haired girl wearing a frog's head hairclip and a blue-and-white shrine maiden-esque outfit asked him, probably expecting him to thank the blue-haired engineer for saving his life.

"Where's Last Order?" That wasn't what they were expecting. The four girls looked confused. "The little girl I'm responsible for, her name is Last Order... Younger than you lot, I'm pretty sure... Short, brown hair with an antenna-like ahoge... Says 'Misaka, Misaka' a lot." But they were still confused. "I brought her to this rundown shrine because she wanted some kind of puppet."

"Rundown, huh! That's it, out! Everybody out!" A brunette in a red-and-white true shrine maiden outfit suddenly became mad.

Xxxxx

"...She kicked us out." The blonde was not surprised. "Don't get her wrong though, Reimu means well. She was really concerned when you suddenly appeared, unconscious, at her gate. She was the one who tried to nurse you back to health until Sanae somehow brought Nitori here."

Apparently, Reimu referred to the brunette shrine maiden, Sanae referred to the verdette shrine maiden-esque girl, and Nitori referred to the blunette engineer.

"An' I'm Marisa! So you got a name for yourself?"

"...Accelerator." He hesitantly complied. These girls clearly were not from his world of Academy City. Or was he the one out of place?

"Sorry, we couldn' help ya find yer girlfriend, Accelerator," His cheek twitched at Marisa's choice of word, "But at the very least, I think I know what she may have been lookin' for."

Marisa pulled out a tiny spool of red thread that unraveled to present a small, Puppet version of herself. But since it didn't look anything like a frog, he decided it wasn't what the brat was looking for.

The Puppet jumped, took a bow, spun in a circle, and finally sat down. But the strange part was that neither did Marisa's hand touch the Puppet, nor did it even move.

"These creatures are called Puppets. Some people keep 'em as pets. Others use 'em to battle. I, myself, use 'em to battle."

"...I half expected you to say you study them and call yourself the Puppet Professor." Accelerator remembered a certain famous game that was played worldwide.

"I know, right!" Sanae seemingly got the reference.

"But I think that position probably goes to Alice, right?" Nitori interjected. "She was super keen on puppets even before these creatures appeared that day."

As it turned out, this Puppet situation was only recent. And Accelerator's appearance coincided with their arrival, so Sanae explained to him that a sudden weakness in the barrier between worlds was caused by the flood of Puppets and resulted in Accelerator appearing in Gensokyo. She also began explaining that Gensokyo was separated from the Outside World by a barrier, but Accelerator already had the idea after having to listen to the tourists from before.

"Huh? You already knew that? That makes things quick. We don't know what caused the flood of Puppets, but there are too many of them to be dealt with right now. For now, we're been strengthening the barrier and keeping the effects from reaching the Outside World, but it's no coincidence if you got pulled in, regardless. On top of this, while the barrier is strong, you probably won't be able to get back to where you were either."

That didn't please Accelerator at all.

"Bah, don't look so worried! I'll resolve all this lickety split! You just stay here, sippin' tea with Nitori and Sanae." Marisa was confident in her puppet battling abilities.

But that ticked Accelerator off even more. He touched a pebble at his foot, intending to use his vector manipulation to shoot it at Marisa's Puppet. But the pebble only moved an inch.

His powers weren't working. He was shocked. In a fit of rage, he kicked the pebble with full force at the Puppet, but it jumped to the side and evaded.

"Oi oi! You can't battle a Puppet by yourself! These things are too strong for ordinary humans like you to fight! I get that you're pissed about not bein' able to do anythin', but you're gonna need your own Puppet if you wanna be of any help. Here, follow me to the back of the shrine. I got a lotta things to teach ya!"

Since Accelerator was powerless, he regretfully submitted and followed the three girls toward the mountains beside Reimu's shrine. The four of them entered some tall grass and, just like a certain game, a creature popped out. It looked like Sanae.

"There's even a Puppet of me?" Sanae looked surprised.

"Yup, they tend to take the form of those with interesting abilities. Here, you can borrow mine if you want to catch it." Nitori offered Sanae her Level 5 Nitori Puppet to battle the Level 2 Sanae Puppet.

"Really? Thanks, that means a lot."

"Everyone should catch a Puppet of herself, I feel."

"Let's see, we first weaken the Puppet with attacks. Nitori Puppet, use Yin Energy!"

A line of white energy bullets appeared in front of the Nitori Puppet and shot toward the Sanae Puppet. It almost knocked it out!

The Sanae Puppet used Yang Energy in response. A row of white energy bullets emanated outward from the Sanae Puppet. A bunch hit the Nitori Puppet for a reasonable amount of damage.

"Next we use a Seal Thread to bind it." Sanae threw a spool of red thread which unraveled and wrapped around the weakened Puppet.

"And finally, use Yin Energy once again to knock it out!" The thread tightened around the knocked out Puppet, compressing into a bicone shaped spool. "Alright, I caught a Puppet of myself!"

That was a different system of catching than Accelerator expected. It was quite a bit more lenient than the system from the game he was thinking of.

Accelerator took one step forward, but Marisa called him back. "Watch out! Here comes another one!"

This one had white hair, red eyes, and the same black shirt and gray pants that Accelerator used to wear, before he got shot in the head and the weather grew colder. It was also sporting half-closed eyes and a scowl on its face. Simply put, it was a Puppet form of him.

How did Accelerator feel about this development? Not even he was sure.

"Looks like you're quite the interestin' fellow yourself, huh? I'd recommend you catch it 'cause no one knows you better than yourself. If you want, you can borrow my Puppet to weaken it. You've already seen what to do."

"No, I'll just need one of those threads."

"Are you sure?" Sanae asked while handing him a Seal Thread.

"No one knows me better than myself, after all." Accelerator knelt down and let the Puppet touch the thread by itself. "Simple." The Accelerator Puppet was caught!

"Huh. It might be personal, but mind tellin' me how you did that?" Marisa tried to pry.

"No. It is personal."

"Well, that's fine then. But now that you have a Puppet, lemme test ya. Use that to fight with my Puppet."

"It was decided that disputes in Gensokyo would be settled with a shootout." Sanae explained.

"Usually this would be with danmaku, but due to the influence of the incident, Puppet battles have become commonplace." Nitori added.

"But since you're a beginner, I'll let you get ready." Marisa informed. "Touch the spool to check its status and skills."

When Accelerator ran his thumb across his red spool, words and numbers appeared:

Info  
Accelerator | Lv 1  
Style | Normal  
Type | Void/Dark  
Emblem | Red  
O.T. | Accelerator  
ID No. | 886886  
EXP | 0 NEXT 10

On the next side:

Stat  
HP | 11 | C  
FoAtt | 6 | A+  
FoDef | 6 | A+  
SpAtt | 6 | E  
SpDef | 6 | C  
Speed | 6 | S  
PP | 0  
Ability | Frail Health  
Take no damage from attacks that do not penetrate the barrier.

And on the final side:

Skill  
Speedy Barrage | SP 5  
Dense Barrage | SP 5

He touched 'Speedy Barrage' and more information popped up:

Type | Void  
Cat. | Focus  
SP | 5  
Pow. | 140  
Acc. | 100%  
Pri. | 0

The Skill 'Dense Barrage' was nearly identical, with just the Category of Spread instead of Focus. Perhaps that was similar to the Physical/Special split from that other game. But Accelerator thought two base 140 power skills with the same Void Type may have been too unreasonable for a Level 1 Puppet.

'Well, if I know myself, this should be easy.' Accelerator thought. "Alright, I'm ready." He sent out his Puppet.

"So if you win, we won't have to worry about ya goin' out an' gettin' into fights. But if you lose, at least you'll get some experience in battle, and the taste of defeat will drive you forward. It's a tough world out there."

"...Use Speedy Barrage."

"Use Yin Energy!"

The Marisa Puppet moved first and tried to shoot Yin Energy at the Accelerator Puppet, but it was blocked by a supernatural force.

"...Kekekek...khahakakaka! Looks like that attack doesn't penetrate the barrier!"

The Accelerator Puppet summoned numerous energy bullets that rushed toward the opposing Puppet. The resulting explosion revealed Marisa's Puppet, knocked out with dizzy eyes.

Accelerator's Puppet grew 4 levels.

The girls stared, speechless. Accelerator could never get enough of that reaction: silence. He could get used to this Gensokyo place.

 **Xxxxx**

 **...So the Speed Nitori Puppet head is strong enough to keep his brain running for the rest of his life, but not strong enough to let him access his powers... is what I'm trying to hint at. And that's why he's keeping his Puppet to compensate.**

 **886886 was my ID Number from my original playthrough. I couldn't think of another one for Accel.**

 **So what exactly is ooc about a Touhou Accel? True he doesn't like destroying lolis ever since he was punched in the face, and Touhou is jam-packed with lolis, but a Puppet would have no such qualms against other Puppets, right? I think it's that he forgets things more often now. What happened to worrying about Last Order? Maybe Puppets are just that engrossing? Or maybe it's just the writer's fault, b/c I'm the one who forgets things often.**

 **I brought in Nitori at the beginning, breaking sequence, b/c she's the closest thing Touhou has to the Heaven Canceller, and that was way too easy a plot device to just not use. This is also where I'm getting the idea of AccelxNitori crossover crack from. Her sister's tangential references to him also help.**

 **How are the girls' voices, btw? I used much of their in-game lines and extrapolated from there.**

 **Just in case you're wondering about Accel's Puppet's Normal Style stat spread, I came up w/ this after years (read: months) of Touhou Theorymonning:**

 **40/75/45/75/45/70 BST 350**

 **I gave him Assist Akyuu's defenses, Normal Marisa's Speed, and Normal Shinki's Spread Attack & Base Stat Total. The HP & Focus Attack were arbitrary, so I decided to make the Focus & Spread Attack stats symmetrical. I also have his Speed, Defense, and Extra Styles' details in reserve.**

 **You may also be thinking, 'Isn't giving him Frail Health (equivalent of Wonder Guard) w/ only 3 weaknesses (Steel, Light, & Fighting) and more than 1 HP, as well as two really powerful stab moves at Level 1 too unreasonable?' He was thinking the same, after all. To which I say, he's Accelerator. He always starts off nearly unbeatable and is nerfed along the road. He will not keep Frail Health or the Barrage skills forever. Just wait for the Style change at Level 30.**

 **I've actually never seen Speedy Barrage or Dense Barrage used in Shard of Dreams, so I just made up my own description. If anyone knows, was it anywhere close to the in-game animation?**

 **Cheers!**


	3. vs NazrinN

**Concerning the rpg elements, keep in mind TPDP is a Touhoumon game, so it'll be hard to turn it into something it's not. I can go easy on the numbers though and focus more on Accel's interactions with the plot.**

 **Starting this chapter, I'll refer to Puppets by their name followed by the Style's initial (i.e. AcceleratorN for Normal Accelerator, NitoriS for Speed Nitori, etc.) to help differentiate between characters and their Puppets. Or I could think up nicknames for the Puppets. Accel probably isn't one to use nicknames though, so it would have to be the other main Touhou girls' Puppets. Suggesting nicknames in the reviews would be handy.**

 **Xxxxx**

Silence. And complete victory with not even a chance of a rematch. Accelerator loved that feeling.

"No way! That wasn't fair at all! I wanna rematch!"

He hated that feeling. He glared at Marisa.

"But after I level up a bit and learn new moves, I mean. I know Yin Energy and Yang Energy are Dream-type Skills that can't penetrate any barriers." She seemingly gave up for the time being.

"At least you won't have to worry about me going out and getting into fights."

"That's true. Well, I'll be off solving the Puppet problem. I don't wanna lose to Reimu after all." Marisa rushed off.

Accelerator walked all the way back to the gate of the shrine, intending to leave.

"Please wait!" It was Sanae. She went into the guest room and came out in less than ten seconds. "Even with your Puppet, it'll still be tough to make it down the mountain path, so take these." She handed him ten Seal Threads and a Puppet Box.

"You know what Seal Threads are, but this is a box for storing Puppets that join you when you don't have anymore room on your team. And if they need a rest, you can cycle them through the box, too. Do your best! The Human Village is about an hour away by walking."

"Oh." Though he doubted he'd need more Puppets, he figured he'd catch just one so he could cycle through the box to recover AcceleratorN's low Skill Points for its attacks.

"Then, I'm off."

"Hey, you're heading to the Human Village, right?" Accelerator was halted again, by Nitori this time.

"Tch."

"Don't click your tongue. My way back home crosses paths, so we can keep each other company for a while."

 _'And my way back home doesn't exist right now.'_ Accelerator thought.

"Do what you want." He honestly couldn't care less about his own destination or Nitori's.

He picked up his Puppet. Holding it in one hand, he asked, "You have my powers, right? Let's fly."

Four black tornados sprouted from AcceleratorN's back. They drove the Puppet forward and lifted Accelerator a few inches off the ground. It wasn't flight as Accelerator remembered, but at least they were going fast.

"Hey, wait for me!" Nitori hopped on her self-made motorbike and soon caught up.

Sanae wasn't joking about the flood of Puppets. The two encountered numerous NazrinN Puppets that looked like mice holding dowsing rods. AcceleratorN took out 10 wild Puppets before running out of Skill Points for both his attacks, so Accelerator had to borrow Nitori's Puppet to cycle through the box just to replenish his Skills. Fortunately, she was around this time, but Accelerator seriously considered settling for one of the common NazrinN's.

The two eventually met the eyes of a Novice Puppeteer.

"Meeting gazes is the sign to battle for Puppet users!" Shouted Yuuichi, the Novice Puppeteer. "If I win, I want that rad choker! If you win, you can have my watch!"

It looked like he didn't have a choice. AcceleratorN would body this poor Novice's Puppet and rob him of his watchーis what both Accelerator and Nitori thought.

"Nazrin, use Hammer Throw!"

Not only did the Level 10 NazrinN outspeed, but the Steel attack also finally penetrated AcceleratorN's Dark barrier and knocked it out.

"I win! Now I can wear a rad NitoriS head choker!"

"I never agreed to give you my choker."

"But you did send your Puppet out to battle, didn't you?" This Yuuichi seemed like a lot of trouble.

"My Puppet was already out when you sent your Puppet out to attack it."

"Don't bother arguing with him, Accelerator, I'll settle this!" Nitori stepped in. "I'll wager my motorbike for your watch and his choker!"

"Ah! It's a real kappa! Are you sure you're not really after my shirikodama?" Yuuichi covered his butt for some reason.

"Uh," Nitori took a sideways glance at Accelerator, "N-no, just the watch and choker will be fine."

"Sweet, I'll look so rad on a motorbike! Let's go, Nazrin!"

"Go, Whipcord!" She sent out her Level 7 NitoriN.

"This'll be easy, use Hammer Throw again!" But it wasn't very effective.

In response, Nitori made an odd hand motion and a cutesy pose. Both Nitori and Whipcord started glowing with a blue aura.

"Diluvial Mere!"

Two torrential rivers appeared on both sides of the foe NazrinN and came crashing in with no safe direction, knocking the Earth/Steel Puppet out instantly. A small lake formed where it lay.

Yuuichi was shocked. He gave up his watch and ran away screaming.

"Well?" Nitori turned to Accelerator, expecting a thank you, or a look of awe or interest.

 ***Chop!***

"Why'd you take his watch?" Instead, she got a scolding.

"Uu..." Nitori held her head. "That's the spoils of war. You're supposed to sell it to a peddler, and that's the only way anybody can get any money in this world."

 _'The only way to get money... is that mercantilism or plutocracy?'_ Accelerator wondered.

"More importantly, you should be interested in that last attack! Wasn't it cool?"

"I guess."

"Hah! That's because my Whipcord was holding a special item called a Magic Crystal Shard." A proud pose. "Specifically, it was the Waterium M shard. You can use it with any Water-type Skill. If it's an attack, it'll turn into Diluvial Mere. Wanna learn the motion? It goes like this!" She repeated the weird motion.

 _'Even though my Puppet doesn't know any Water Skills, so it seems like useless information.'_

"Speaking of new Skills, how do you get them?" His Puppet grew five levels since he last checked, but it still only had two Skills.

"You can edit the Puppet by touching its Thread. There should be new Skills at Levels 7, 10, 14, 19, and 24 for all Normal Puppets. That's how I learned Water Ball for Whipcord and became able to use the Waterium M."

Accelerator recalled his Puppet to its Thread and tried it out. He saw two new Skills: Mirage and Heavenly Blessing. Mirage reflected Status Skills back to the other party (equivalent of Magic Coat in Pokemon), while Heavenly Blessing was a base 50 power Void-type Spread attack that doubled in power and changed type during different weathers (Weather Ball). He decided to add Heavenly Blessing to his Skillset if only to save SP on his more powerful attacks.

"There isn't a Voidium M by any chance...?"

"There is! One for each type. I believe the Voidium M shard can be found at the Human Village. There's a girl there named Akyuu who's responsible for the main Voidium Magic Crystal. She can probably answer all your questions about Magic Crystals and the history of Gensokyo. Puppets may be a different thing though, since they're so recent."

At least that gave Accelerator a partial reason to visit the Human Village.

On the way, they battled many more wild Puppets and Novice Puppeteers. By the time they arrived at the edge of the Human Village around 10 minutes later thanks to their speed, their Normal Puppets were both Level 12, and Accelerator disdainfully caught an average NazrinN to allow AcceleratorN to rest in the box for a second at a time. Apparently, the box would not allow its owner to be Puppetless for even a second.

"So this is where we part ways." Nitori smiled. "I have to cross this river to the north. Your destination is up ahead to the west. It was cool meeting you. Hope we meet again! Later!" Nitori flipped a switch on her motorbike, and the machine transformed into a jet ski. She rode off, waving and smiling.

Accelerator turned to the west to continue forward, when something soft bumped into him and fell down.

"OW!"

It was another little girl.

 **Xxxxx**

 **...This chapter is indeed shorter, but it's packed w/ some new things not available in game: M-Shards! Or Magic Crystal Shards. Magic Crystals were originally just drops from wild Puppets that only had one use: they could be sold at a very high price.**

 **Magical Fragments, or MagFrags, on the other hand could be used to reincarnate low rank Puppets to a higher rank. And that was weird. Thus I turned Magic Crystals into key items, one of each type held by a different Touhou character, and the shards of those Crystals could be hold items equivalent to Z-Crystals.**

 **But I want them to be consumable b/c in tpdp, consumable items always come back after each battle. That and I like the Skills Unfettered Soul (Acrobatics) and Venom Strike (kind of like Belch), so I don't want them to be useless on an M-Shard set. Hence, Shards of the Crystal, not the Crystal itself.**

 **Whipcord has been the nickname for my Empoleon for the longest time, thanks to Pyrotoz's Random** **Nickname** **ー** **I mean Random Pokemon Generator. Since NitoriN is also Water/Steel, that's where I made the connection. I'll be using Pyrotoz's Random Nickname Generator for other main characters' Puppets, unless a reviewer suggests a fitting nickname that perhaps they used in their playthrough. That'd be cool.**

 **Diluvial Mere is one of Nitori's spell cards. The M-Moves will be named like that, after a relatively high tier spell card. I've decided on most of M-Move names, but still unsure about Wind, Light, Dark, Poison, and Fighting. If a reviewer could suggest a name for one of those, that'd be cool too.**

 **Also, don't worry about Akyuu dolls and rest stops. I want the box to be available to use anywhere. I doubt Accel will have a full team of six anyway. Or at least anytime soon.**

 **Those who've played the game know who the Ow girl is already. I don't plan on changing her much, but new mechanics call for new battle strategies. That's all.**

 **Cheers!**


	4. vs CirnoN

"What're you doing? Watch where you're going!" The little girl exclaimed. She merely fell when she bumped into Accelerator but otherwise wasn't hurt. If Accelerator still had his esper powers, there would be no girl left to fall down. The girl was lucky. She got up and then noticed something.

"...You have Puppets with you, don't you?" She saw the two bicone spools and the Puppet box hanging from Accelerator's belt. "Hm... Well, whatever. Come on, move, move! I'm busy. Pray we don't meet again!"

"Hah? Well same to you then." Accelerator glared down at the girl as small as a Puppet. He wasn't paying too much attention, but he thought he noticed doll joints at her wrists and elbows.

The girl hurried off, away from the Human Village.

Accelerator continued walking, and upon entering the gate, an average human welcomed him. It was apparently a calm and nice place. Accelerator asked the man where he could find someone named Akyuu, and was pointed to a small mansion to the north, called the Hieda Mansion.

No one greeted him when he arrived at the small mansion. There was only one maid running around, cleaning. The frail, purple-haired scholar girl named Akyuu was alone writing something down in her study room. Accelerator let himself in.

"Oh, you're the rumored..." It seemed Akyuu already recognized him. "Ahem! Please excuse me. Pleased to meet you. I serve as the master of this place. My name is Hieda no Akyuu. There was an article about you in the tengu's extra edition. How you're 'adpet' (sic) at controlling Puppets. I assumed they meant 'adept', so they have quite a favorable opinion on you."

Well, that was quick. Accelerator assumed the typo was also due to their speed.

"I heard you were responsible for the main Voidium Magic Crystal." He explained.

"I see. You came because the representative of the kappas, Nitori, told you about me. So you're investigating the Puppet incident and the relevance of Magic Crystal Shards to return to the outside world. Honestly, I don't understand it all myself. What I do know is that nothing affects the Puppets aside from a Puppet's power. Luckily, using the sealing method, the village has been able to protect itself, but... Could I ask you to wait and take a look around the village while I figure out something to tell you? We're just a nameless village, but there may be some things a person from the outside world might find unusual."

Fair enough. Accelerator wasn't keen on words either. He turned to leave.

"By the way!" She stopped him.

"Tch."

"Don't click your tongue. I heard a rumor that there are some tricksters around the area of the village. Be careful just in case."

"...Oh."

Upon exiting the mansion, he immediately came across a small humanoid with short green hair, two bug-like antennae, and a dark cape. It was a youkai firefly, but Accelerator didn't know that.

"Wawah! I've been discovered!"

"...You weren't hiding." Maybe it was trying to spy on him.

"Run away!" It ran through the bushes to the east.

Well, Akyuu did mention finding unusual things around this village. Accelerator cut through the bushes and sled down the cliffside with the help of AcceleratorN in pursuit of the bug youkai. When he landed in an open grassy field, he heard more voices.

"You were discovered?! What do we do?!"

"Hmhm. I, the strongest, will beat them black and blue!"

Were they a theater group? Or was that rhyme just coincidence?

"Alright Cirno! You're so cool!" (*shot*)

"...By the way, is that the human that discovered you Wriggle?" Cirno noticed.

The rest of the group of five was startled and turned to where Cirno was pointing.

"Wah! They're here already!"

"If it's come to this, it can't be helped! We'll leave this to Cirno. The rest of us will run!"

They scattered and only the blue-haired ice fairy was left. Accelerator stepped forward, not intending to ask who they were or what they were planning, but just because the ice fairy seemed itching for a battle.

"You there!" She called to him. "We are the Puppet Liberation Front! I, the strongest, can't just let someone that stands against our plan get away! Now, I declare war!"

"Heh, I don't have a clue about your plans, and honestly couldn't care less. But where I'm from, I'm also known as the strongest. Though while I'm in this world, I think that title rightfully belongs to my Puppet. So! Let's see who's really the strongest!"

The Puppet battle started. Cirno sent out her first in line:

"Go, Torquemada!" It was a Level 9 RumiaN, a Dark-type Puppet. A wave of darkness enveloped it as it emerged from its Thread.

Accelerator had experienced what breaks Dark barriers in this world. He sent out his Level 8 NazrinN. Four stones erupted from the ground where it landed. The mouse Puppet was faster and bopped the darkness Puppet's head with a hammer. It pierced the barrier and dealt massive damage! Torquemada retaliated by throwing a Dark Ball at its enemy. Although it was a neutral hit, NazrinN was almost taken out as well!

One more quick Hammer Throw, and Accelerator's NazrinN won the first round. But Cirno still had one Puppet left:

"Grrn! Let's end this, Napoleon!" She sent out a Puppet of herself, accompanied by a splash of water. Accelerator realized when Puppets emerge from their Threads, they show a tell for their primary type.

Remembering how Diluvial Mere took out an enemy NazrinN, Accelerator recalled his NazrinN and, expecting a Water attack, sent out his main Puppet. A white field glowed around it, signifying its main Void type.

"So that's your ace, huh? But mine's still a higher Level!" By three levels to be precise. Cirno's confidence rose. "Use Frost Edge!" Three shards of ice shot toward AcceleratorN.

But the shards of ice vanished upon reaching their target. AcceleratorN's Frail Health protected it!

"What?!"

"Was that your strongest attack?"

"Yeah, it was!"

"Well, if it doesn't penetrate the barrier, it won't have any effect. Got any other attacks?"

"Try Apple Bomb!" The Puppet threw a fruit, but the Nature-type Skill also did nothing.

"Khaha! Looks like that one didn't work either!" He was feeling the adrenaline rush now. Napoleon still had potentially two other attacks that might pierce his barrier. "Hey, clench your teeth, strongest! My weakest attack... just might shake you up a bit! Heavenly Blessing!" Four small rays of light shot up and rained down on the enemy Puppet.

...It didn't do nearly enough. Cirno's Napoleon came out relatively unscathed. That was beyond embarrassing for Accelerator, both the quote, which he mentally proclaimed to be completely accidental, and the result, but he didn't let the blood flow rush to his face.

"...Might as well have just used my strongest in that case." He decided. "Go for Speedy Barrage next."

The changes to Cirno's confidence was giving her whiplash. "Yin Energy?!" She desperately shouted in confusion. But she realized too late that Dream-type Skills are not meant to penetrate any barriers.

The Speedy Barrage was too much for Napoleon, and the ice fairy Puppet went down to the final attack.

AcceleratorN grew to Level 14! A new Skill became available.

"Grnn... I never heard there was someone stronger than me, the strongest!"

"You don't read the tengu extra?"

"What, really? Man, they're quick. But even though I'm not strongest anymore, you can't chase everyone that fled into the village! You just can't!"

"Alright, I won't chase them. I'll just find them and beat up their Puppets for the experience."

"No, wait!"

"What is it now?" He was getting really irritated at every single person stopping him every ten minutes.

"You beat me, so at least tell me, what type was that Puppet? What beats it?"

"You're planning on telling your friends, aren't you?"

"Ack."

"But if you move now, I'll just follow you so I don't have to play their hide-and-seek game."

"...I'm staying here."

"Then I can tell you alone. It was Void/Dark. I don't know what beats Void, or what else beats Dark, but Steel seemed pretty effective. Any of your friends have Steel attacks on their Puppets?"

"I don't think so. I don't think they have anything to hit you with. Dark normally beats Void, but then you have a Dark barrier to resist that. They shouldn't battle you. Stay hidden, girls!"

Accelerator thought he heard a faint "Okay!" from the south.

Thus he began his hide-and-seek quest in search of lolis and their Puppets. They weren't hard to find at all. They were all hidden in the five open grassy fields around the village. The first to be found was a green-haired fairy with golden wings, nicknamed Dai by the rest of the group.

"So Cirno lost, huh? But next time won't be the same! Now play with me!"

Her Nature Skills did nothing.

"Aw, I lost."

Next, he found Wriggle, the firefly.

"I'll liberate your Puppets! If you don't want that, you better resist!"

Her Nature and Dark Skills did nothing.

"For me to lose... What could I have done to win? ...If I'd done that, would I have won? Augh! It's too hard! I don't know!"

Next was Mystia, the night sparrow.

"Alright, Puppet holding human. Listen to my song!"

Her Sound and Wind Skills did nothing.

"No good at all. If it was night, I'd be in better form."

Finally, Accelerator found the supposed leader of the quintet of tricksters, Rumia.

"Ugh, you're so persistent. But I can't let you muck up our strategy!"

Her Dark and Poison Skills also did nothing. Accelerator was starting to think Void/Dark was a near unbeatable typing.

"I-I lost! How can you be so strong?!"

AcceleratorN grew to Level 17! NazrinN grew to Level 13!

"Uh... What was I supposed to do now?"

"You're the leader and you forget your strategies?"

"That's right! I've gotta report first!" Apparently, the leader had a leader of her own. "I'll let you off with this today! Remember that!" She fled out of the village. The other four tricksters probably fled too.

Accelerator turned to head back to the Hieda Mansion and let Akyuu know that he had indeed come across something unusual, including the tricksters she mentioned. But he didn't have to walk that far.

"Haa...haa... So this is where you were." It was Akyuu. She looked out of breath. Who knew when last she walked from one end of the village to the other end? "I heard the Liberation Front had appeared in the village, but..."

"Ah, I beat them. Look how strong my Puppet is now."

"That's amazing! As I thought, you have a gift for using Puppets. How about it? How about looking into the Puppets yourself, Accelerator?"

"I guess I'm already doing that. Resolving the incident is also a prerequisite for me to get back home, anyway."

"I'll look into it myself, but I just don't have the time... And on that note, I'd like to entrust you with these."

Akyuu handed Accelerator two items: a small pocket book, and a tiny white crystal shard.

"The first item's a Puppet Book. It's an amazing item with the mysterious power to automatically record any of the Puppets you meet. The next item is a Voidium M Shard. You've probably heard a little from Nitori, but the M-Shards have the power to improve any Puppet Skill of the same type once per battle. There's a pose you have to do to activate it though. It goes like this."

Akyuu closed her eyes, put her index finger and thumb together on both hands, and squatted down, resting her right foot on her left knee. Thus she entered a one-footed yoga meditation pose. That looked tough. Nothing like the easy hand motions from the game back home. Accelerator recalled the pose Nitori made to activate the Waterium M and realized that it was something the average human male would not be able to do without years of practice. Akyuu stood back up.

"If you use the Voidium M for an attack, it becomes Law of Boundless Space, a high power Void attack. But if you use it for a status Skill, you'll discover an additional effect, on top of the original Skill. Try it out on different Void Skills. Strengthening yourself while recording the Puppets... Accelerator, I'm sure you can use them." She smiled with expectation.

"If you haven't decided where to go yet, I recommend you visit Kourindou. He gathers many useful items, and if you ask him, he may have something for your journey. Head due west from the Human Village, and you'll see the Forest of Magic. Kourindou is right before it. Be careful on your way." She then began slowly walking off back to her mansion.

Accelerator sighed. "Need a lift?" He raised his Puppet above his head, and the black whirlwinds emerged from its back, quite a bit larger than before, signifying its increase in Levels.

"No, no, I wouldn't bother you toー"

"Just hold on. Didn't you say you were short on time?"

"I... Thanks."

The trip was over in five seconds, but Akyuu would never forget it.

 **Xxxxx**

 **...So who ships AccelxAkyuu now? I swear that wasn't planned.**

 **A note on the nicknames I used: the CirnoN was named after a random-generated Alolan Ninetales, and the RumiaN was just named after the first Dark-type I generated, a Crawdaunt. I feel like Napoleon fits both Cirno and Alolan Ninetales if you consider the Napoleon from Monster Strike. Torquemada on the other hand... I didn't realize until later, but that one is also named after a historical European. Specifically, one of the first leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, lol. So Cirno has that theme going on now. Thanks, Pyro. He probably doesn't read this anyway.**

 **Concerning the Voidium M attack name, that one's also a bit interesting. It's not the name of a skill card, but it is related tangentially to Akyuu. Her Book, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, is called Touhou Gumon Shiki (東方求聞史紀** **) in Japanese. Along with her ability (求聞持** **, Gumonji), it's named after a prayer (虚空蔵求聞持法** **, Kokuuzou Gumonji Hou) from Shingon Buddhism for Ākāśagarbha to improve memory retention. Ākāśagarbha is one of the eight great bodhisattvas whose name can mean Boundless Space Treasury. The prayer in Japanese translates to Requested Law of the Boundless Space Treasury. So I condensed that to Law of Boundless Space.**

 **If that was a bit to read,** **sorry** **ー** **tough, but I hope it was at least as interesting as I felt it was.**

 **Cheers!**


	5. vs ReimuN

Accelerator set off to the west immediately for the Kourindou store. He wasn't particularly tired, so he didn't feel the need to stop at the local inn. He also had his trusty box for when his Puppets grew low on HP or SP.

Walking a plain road was boring, so he opened the Puppet Book that Akyuu gave him. Most of the pages were blank, but he found two filled pages near the back. The first one was for the Nazrin Puppet. There was a description:

"Puppet with the power of Nazrin. Has the ability to find lost things. Because it can find lost things, it's useful for forgetful people. It's better at running away than fighting."

Not a bad ability, though Accelerator had few belongings to lose in the first place. He also found the page for his own Puppet:

"Puppet with the power of Accelerator. Has the ability to control all vectors. It enjoys peace and quiet. It only fights to rid itself of anything that would disrupt that peace. An efficient lure for Puppets of littー"

He stopped reading there. He suddenly lost interest.

He decided to check his Puppets' stats on their Threads instead. He recalled AcceleratorN unlocking a new Skill in the battle with Cirno. It was Tiger Rush, a low power, Void-type Focus Skill that could preempt the enemy. Accelerator made it learn that right away.

However, he grew concerned that if he found some Puppet that resisted or was immune to Void Skills, he'd have to rely on his NazrinN's Earth and Steel attacks. Might as well raise its Level with some wild Puppet battles. He only hoped he wasn't stopped by anyoneー

"Hold it right there!"

"...Knew it. Thought too soon."

The red-and-white outfitted shrine maiden of the old Hakurei Shrine came toward him from the west. Her name... What did that blonde girl say it was?

"So it's you after all. The human that's been sticking his nose into this Puppet business lately. Frankly, it's a pain having a normal person wandering around me aimlessly! Don't you know who I am?"

"I do know who you are... But the name escapes me."

"Hakurei Reimu from the Hakurei Shrine! That's me. Just so you know, I'm a specialist at incident resolution. I can't have you disturbing my business. And if you insist on getting in my way, then I'll take you on myself. I'll beat you down, so bring it on."

What a belligerent brat! Everyone in this world is so quick to fight. Marisa and Sanae weren't worried for nothing. At least they have the decency to limit it to Puppet battles.

Reimu sent out a Level 12 AyaN. The crow tengu Puppet whirled in on a gust of wind signifying its Wind type. Accelerator chose to lead with NazrinN, wanting it to level up as soon as possible.

"Skinflint, use Feather Shot!" Reimu ordered her Puppet to attack. Skinflint shot some feathers at its enemy, but NazrinN's Steel barrier resisted the Wind attack.

"Quickly end this with Hammer Throw!" The Wind barrier was pierced and Skinflint was knocked out just as fast.

"I see you're just as troublesome as the tengus say you are."

"Is that what 'adpet' is supposed to mean?"

"Beats me. Go, Thriftless!" Reimu sent out her next Puppet, a Level 13 SuikaN. "Go for Forward Thrust!"

Accelerator recalled his NazrinN and sent out AcceleratorN, hoping Frail Health would absorb the attack. But the sound of a barrier being pierced echoed, and his heart sank. The Fighting-type Focus Skill penetrated the Dark barrier...

And AcceleratorN survived with 1 HP! Such fortune!

"He choked! Go for one more Forward Thrust!"

Reimu felt the sudden switch was a misplay. Her confidence rose. But she had yet to realized one key detail: AcceleratorN was still faster. One Speedy Barrage was all it took to knock out Reimu's Thriftless. A sudden sense of relief rushed over Accelerator. He didn't even need to open his mouth to order it. His Puppet was truly the strongest.

"No way! But I still have one more Puppet than you. It's your turn, Cultivation!"

Her final Puppet was a Level 20 ReimuN. A white barrier flashed. It was a Void Puppet just like his.

"What do you think? One more Speedy Barrage should do the trick, right?" Accelerator asked his Puppet. AcceleratorN readied its attack.

The energy bullets zoomed toward Cultivation... and passed right through it.

"...Ahー?"

"You didn't know that ReimuN Puppets have a secondary Illusion type, did you? That's how you tell a newbie like you."

"Kh! But do you have anything to hitー?"

"Metal Needle!" The crash of a barrier breaking resounded.

"Oh."

"I knew your secondary type was Dark by the way my Fighting Skill broke through. That's how tell a veteran like me." She really liked to brag, didn't she?

"Good thing I switched out my NazrinN then, right? I still have a near-full health Puppet left to fight with." He sent the mouse Puppet back out. He still had a chance.

"It's true, switching isn't something a newbie would think to do. But the Level difference is a big factor, you know."

A seven Level difference in fact. It was an uphill battle. Cultivation didn't have much to hit with. Metal Needle would be resisted. She ascertained NazrinN's secondary Steel type, thanks to Skinflint, the AyaN, and she wouldn't let its sacrifice be in vain.

Reimu settled for Yin Energy. One hit from the Dream Skill brought NazrinN down to half its current HP. It would be a solid two-hit knock out. Meanwhile, even with a critical hit from Hammer Throw, Cultivation's HP and Focus Defense were too high for the lower Leveled Puppet.

Thus Accelerator suffered his second defeat at the hands of the Hakurei shrine maiden. He froze in shock. But surprisingly, Reimu was impressed.

"Hm, so you've got that kind of power. That wasn't too bad. If we had an equal number of Puppets, we may have been more evenly matched. But don't let that get to your head. As you are right now, if you get into a pinch, no one will save you no matter how much you cry."

"...Are you speaking from experience?"

"What? No, shut up! That's just how this place is. For now, could I ask you to stay out of my way? Otherwise, you can do whatever you want. I recommend you find more Puppets to make a more solid team, though."

"Alright, yeah... Good advice." Accelerator started to feel she was right. He could have won if he had just one more Puppet.

"...Then I'll be going." Reimu walked off toward the Human Village.

Accelerator cycled through his box to revive his fallen Puppets. He wondered if there was a type chart for these creatures, and considered going back to Akyuu to ask her about it. He opened the Puppet Book to see if it had any information on the Illusion type.

And like magic, a type chart materialized on the first page (look up 'tpdp type chart' on Google if you want; I'm looking at the YnK 1.011 version). There were 17 types in total. It looked like Illusion had three weaknesses: itself, Sound, and Warped. But Illusion and Void were immune to each other, so Accelerator would need a Sound or Warped Skill if he wanted to defeat Void/Illusion Puppets like Cultivation.

He called out AcceleratorN and gave it an order:

"Help me find some Puppets to add to our team."

The Puppet nodded and spread its wings, ready to flyーright back to the Human Village. Accelerator was confused at first, but he figured there must've been Puppets hidden around the Village. AcceleratorN may have noticed them while they were searching for the Liberation Front members.

AcceleratorN led its master to the bushes near the Hieda Mansion. After a while, out from a bush popped a blue fairy Puppet with icy wings. It was a Puppet of the girl who called herself the strongest. It was idly looking around, so for the time being, the two Accelerators got ready to fight. Accelerator handed his Puppet the Voidium M for some solid power, and brought out a Seal Thread to throw at the wild CirnoN.

The CirnoN finally met their gaze and attacked. Accelerator threw the red Thread as the wild Puppet fired an Apple Bomb. Of course, the fruit attack failed, and the wild Puppet was successfully bound in a magic circle.

Accelerator entered the yoga pose Akyuu taught him and started glowing with a white light. His Puppet started glowing too as it raised is hands to the sky. A white ball of void energy formed above its head and continued to gradually expand.

"Law of Boundless Space!"

The white void ball rapidly expanded to cover everyone's vision with pure white space. When Accelerator's vision returned, he found the magic circle already turned into a red spool of thread. He had caught CirnoN.

"Not bad."

"Was that what I think it was?" The violet-haired master of the Hieda Mansion rushed out to see.

"Ah, I caught another Puppet."

Xxxxx

Upon leaving the Human Village again, Accelerator checked CirnoN's status through its Thread.

Info  
Cirno | Lv 10  
Style | Normal  
Type | Water  
Emblem | White

Stat  
HP | 32 | A+  
FoAtt | 15 | B+  
FoDef | 13 | A-  
SpAtt | 19 | A+  
SpDef | 14 | A+  
Speed | 19 | B+  
PP | 0  
Ability | Curiosity  
Support Skills receive +1 to their priority.

Skill  
Good Luck | SP 10  
Yin Energy | SP 35  
Frost Edge | SP 20  
Apple Bomb | SP 20

He knew Frost Edge and Apple Bomb were generic Focus attacks like Yin Energy. Looked like Good Luck was a Support Skill that randomly raised one of its stats. It was a Void Skill, so he wondered what effect the Voidium M would have for it.

He was amused by AcceleratorN's sense of measuring strength. He wondered if all Puppets could see each other's stats, or if his Puppet had some special power he wasn't aware of.

On the way to Kourindou, they met various Puppeteers, but none were as strong as Reimu and Cultivation. He even met a strong-looking youkai who could make her head fly, and a bird who could read books (A strange world, indeed!), but their Puppets turned into free experience for his three Puppets.

They didn't find any more interesting wild Puppets worth adding to their team in the tall grass either. The ones in the grass were too low leveled anyway. AcceleratorN blew them away even before Accelerator could Seal them. It wasn't disobeying its order. Those wild Puppets just weren't fit enough to be on the team the way CirnoN was.

If the selection of team members was left to AcceleratorN, they would all have relatively high stats. Accelerator felt no need to complain.

Eventually, they came across a storefront. A sign in front said, 'All spring, summer, and winter'. He had arrived at Kourindou.

"Welcome." A 20 to 30 year old young man with gray hair and glasses greeted him as he entered the store. Apparently, his name was Rinnosuke. Accelerator only knew that because he met a Puppet of him that belonged to a Puppeteer. "Oh, you're that kid the rumors in the newspaper were going on about. Did you come to get something you needed? Kourindou sells certain held items for Puppets."

"I'm working to resolve the Puppet problem." A simple response.

"Ah. So you started traveling around to investigate the Puppets. Sounds pretty rough. I wonder if there's something I can do..." The shopkeeper could sympathize.

"So can I turn these watches and grimoires that I won from Puppet battles into cash here?" Accelerator suggested.

"I wish I had that much cash. For that amount, the best I can do is barter with my own products." Did Accelerator really collect that many?

"I know! I'll show you my special inventory of jewels. A jewel is a held item for Puppets that makes an attack 1.3 times stronger the first time you use it. They're not as powerful as M-Shards, but they're used the same way, and you can use more than one of them per battle! And you don't have to pose like a weirdo."

"That sounds pretty good." Accelerator didn't want to have to do a yoga pose every time he wanted a stronger Void attack. Then he could see what M-Good Luck did for CirnoN. "Got any for Void, Earth, Steel, Water, or Nature?"

"There's one for each type. Tell you what, I'll give you the master set, one of each jewel. I'm sure they'll come in handy on your adventure... Well, if you'll do me a little favor, that is."

"...Tch."

"Don't click your tongue. It'll be a fun little side quest, relevant to your main quest. There's a girl named Alice in the forest up ahead."

"The Puppet Professor?" He remembered Nitori mentioning someone like that.

"...? That's the first time I heard that title, but it fits her pretty well. So you've heard of her. I want you to take a package to her. Should take about as much time as it'll take me to assemble the set. Should be a decent time killer."

'So would that make this dude the Viridian Mart clerk?' Accelerator mused. He remembered a famous part at the beginning of some of the early games, where a clerk asks the player to deliver a parcel to the professor. This was eerily similar.

"Also, Alice is the best person to talk to when it comes to Puppets, so this is a really good deal for you all around."

"Fair enough." Accelerator got the Package for Alice!

"Then I'll leave it to you. Make sure it gets to her. And be careful you don't get lost in the forest."

Xxxxx

There were fairy Puppeteers in the forest before Alice's place. They tried to prank Accelerator with their fairy Puppets, but he wiped them all out with the newly caught CirnoN. As it turned out, Voidium M-Good Luck increased the Puppet's critical hit rate, in addition to raising a random stat. One time, Focus Attack was raised, so a crit Yin Energy could knock out an opposing DaiyouseiN. Another time, Speed was raised, so it outsped and took out a LunaN with a crit Frost Edge.

Other times it received a raise in Spread Attack even though it had no Spread Skills, or Focus Defense when the foe had no Focus Skills. Accelerator disliked that gambling aspect of the Skill, so he only considered raising the crit rate as the main effect, and the random stat boost as a secondary effect.

In no time, he reached a small house in the forest. He opened the door without knocking.

It was a cozy two-room dwelling with a kitchen and a living room. The main thing that set it apart from other small dwellings was how it was decorated: shelves up to the ceiling, packed with the highest quality dolls. Most of the dolls looked the same, based on a girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Oh, hello there." A girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes walked up to him.

"...You're Alice?"

"Yes, I'm Alice."

"Here's a package for you from Kourindou."

"Something for me?"

Accelerator gave the package to Alice.

"It's finally here! I was waiting for this! Thanks. You really saved me."

"By any chance, is the package related to Puppets?"

"Eh? About Puppets? Oh, right. You're that child from that article in the newspaper."

Accelerator's cheek twitched. _'And just how old do you have to be to call me a child?'_

"Hm, so your name's Accelerator." She confirmed by rechecking the article on her coffee table.

"Yes, I'm Accelerator."

"Unfortunately, I don't have very much information on those creatures, myself. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. Oh yes, Accelerator. You must be tired, coming all this way, no? You'll have to take the same way back, so feel free to rest for a while."

"No thanks, I don't feel tired."

"No need to be shy. What's the matter? Do my dolls frighten you? Don't lie now."

"Not in the slightest. They're well made. I just honestly feel like I can go on for the rest of my life."

"Mm!?"

"And I've got a Puppet Box for these three, so I don't need to worry about their rest either."

"...Ahem! I see. (So that's what he meant!) ...That must be the power of that NitoriS Puppet's head attached to your choker... Oh right! I just remembered! Puppets move through magic. There's a witch in the library of a place called the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She may be involved. How about paying her a visit? There're vampires there too, so make sure you don't get eaten."

"...Note taken."

 **Xxxxx**

 **...What did you think he meant, Alice? Did you think he was talking about his libido? You naughty girl... Nah, she was probably just excited because she thought he was interested in her dolls.**

 **Speaking of dolls, the 'Ningyou' in 'Gensou Ningyou Enbu' (幻想人形演舞** **, lit. "Fantasy Puppet Dance Performance") can be translated to both doll and puppet. In the game, they're kind of used interchangeably. But I'm sticking with Puppets (with a capital 'P') to refer to the moving creatures. Alice as the Puppet Professor is at best just left in as a translation joke and a Pokémon reference, along with Rinnosuke as the Viridian City Poké Mart clerk.**

 **Reimu has a sort of money theme going on with her first two Puppets, Skinflint and Thriftless. They were randomized separately, so it was extra surprising. Just in case a reader is curious, they're kind of antonyms. A skinflint doesn't like spending, while someone who is thriftless does like spending.**

 **I half expect reviews at this point that go "These nicknames are terrible. Stop using Pyrotoz's Random Nickname Generator.** ** _I will give you some better names. Here you go._** **" But that's just wishful thinking, isn't it?**

 **I almost forgot to include the catching of Accelerator's third Puppet. But then I wouldn't get to show what Law of Boundless Space looked like. How was it?**

 **I caught a Cirno with high IVs in my original playthrough. It ended up as an Assist Cirno and one of my main leads against the Elite 4, with Curiosity dual Fields (Prankster dual screens) and Lightning Speed (Volt Switch) to make way for my various set up sweepers. That is until I found out that Power Aya with Salvo (Skill Link) can solo the first three members and easily train up five other Puppets at a time. Oh well, fun times anyway.**

 **Accel doesn't need a bike. He has a Puppet of himself at full power. So I'm giving him a jewel of each type instead, which Rinnosuke eventually sells anyway.**

 **Cheers!**


	6. vs MokouE

**Well pointed out, guest #3, and thanks for catching that! I have been shirking on describing facial expressions. I'm paying more attention to detail starting this chapter, and I'll probably go back to improve the previous chapters after a while. The last chapter was pretty long without those descriptions, so I probably could've broken it into two chapters if I did include more detail.**

 **Xxxxx**

"So you lied, huh?"

A menacing smile appeared on Accelerator's face. He had returned to Kourindou and was standing in front of a sweating Rinnosuke. His strongest Puppet, AcceleratorN, let its presence be known by hopping on Kourindou's front counter and mimicking its master's smile with its own uncanny valley version. The pressure in the room increased.

"Now, now, Accelerator," Rinnosuke attempted to calm the two down. "I may have confused puppets and Puppets then, but I definitely know the difference now. And I sincerely appreciate your assistance in delivering my products. Here, the jewel set is ready."

Accelerator got the jewel set!

"Oh yeah, there was that." Accelerator had forgotten. He had only returned to give Rinnosuke a piece of his mind. His irritation dispersed. He guessed they weren't on too bad of terms. They might as well be on good terms now.

Accelerator opened the set and 17 jewels shone with colorful energy. He took the biggest jewel, a white Diamond, from the center of the set and gave it to AcceleratorN. The Puppet nodded and returned to its Thread, looking content.

"Whew! (I dodged a bullet there!)" Rinnosuke was relieved.

"By the way," Accelerator followed up. "When I asked Alice about the Puppets, she referred me to a witch at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Do you know where that is?"

"Hm? The Scarlet Devil Mansion? That's up north from here. Unfortunately, the path to the Mansion is being blocked off by magically regrowing trees. If you cut them down with just anything, they'll just grow back right away. I had a device that could pause its regeneration for a few minutes, but I sold it to the youkai at Eientei. They should be done with it soon, so why don't you ask them about lending it to you? If you're going to Eientei, ask the half-youkai teaching school in the village. She should know about its surroundings. Well, good luck with your adventure. I'll be rooting for you."

So Accelerator received another side quest. Maybe this guy was more like an adventurers guild receptionist than a store clerk. Well, thanks to his NitoriS Puppet head, he didn't have to worry about getting tired or sleepy, so he figured he should probably make the most of his time here.

"Oh," Accelerator remembered. "On the way back here, I found a Puppet that looked like you." He didn't mention it was the weakest Puppet he had met so far. "If I'm to continue on my adventure, I won't be doing any more deliveries for you. You may want to get a Puppet of yourself to help you with that."

A kappa's voice rang out in his head: 'Everyone should catch a Puppet of herself, I feel.' Although they were both males, so Accelerator wasn't sure if her words still applied to them.

Xxxxx

Making his way back to the Human Village, Accelerator asked the villagers where he could find the teacher and learned she was heading to the Hieda Mansion. Maybe she had something important to talk about with Akyuu. Upon entering the Mansion, Accelerator could hear another female voice.

"Could you do something about that?" It was the teacher, right?

Accelerator entered Akyuu's room without knocking. The purple-haired girl had a serious expression, but it brightened up upon seeing him after so long.

"Oh, Accelerator, you're back. I know! How about we ask Accelerator? He may be willing to help."

"I see." A girl having long, silver hair with blue highlights replied. A dark blue dress and a matching house-shaped hat decorated her figure. "So you're that Puppet user. I know the rumors going around the village. Getting to the point, I'd like with talk to you for a bit." Her expression remained serious. "It seems something troubling is occurring at Eientei right now. They originally asked me to help, but I think it's a little over my head. I'm well aware of how selfish this request is, but could you please go to Eientei and resolve this issue?"

"What do you say?" Akyuu added. "By resolving a small matter like this, I think it's a natural first step toward resolving the Puppet incident."

"(A small matter, she says...)" The teacher, Keine, looked bummed.

"Yeah, no problem. I was going to ask how to get to Eientei anyway. I have business there." Accelerator accepted the side quest. If it was something he could solve with his Puppets, it would truly be no problem.

"Really?! You'll do it?!" Keine was no longer depressed, and was in fact openly relieved. "Thank you, I'm in your debt."

"Follow the path south of the village and you'll see the Bamboo Forest. Eientei is inside." Akyuu explained. "If you tell the gatekeeper south of the village that you have my permission, he should let you through. Give it your all."

Even if the gatekeeper didn't let him through, Accelerator was sure he could just force his way past with his Puppets.

"Eientei is in the deepest part of the Bamboo Forest. It's easy to get lost in there, so be careful... I'm sorry, but I'm counting on you." The teacher told him.

Xxxxx

There were no difficulties going south to the Bamboo Forest.

Accelerator battled many human and youkai puppeteers, raising his Puppets' strength to reasonable levels. At level 24, AcceleratorN learned its first non-Void skill: Panic Call, a Dark Focus attack that knocks off the foe's held item. His other two Puppets similarly learned new skills.

Once he entered the Bamboo Forest however, he heard a rustling sound coming from the trees on his left. Once again, a little girl rushed out and bumped into him.

"Owowow!" Once again, if he was full-powered Accelerator, there would be no girl left. "Sorry, I'm in such a hurry that I wasn't watching where I was."

If Accelerator was any less of a human being, he would have demanded compensation at this point. But at least this one had the decency to apologize. Upon closer inspection, he noticed white rabbit ears growing out of the girl's black hair. Was she another youkai?

"Where are you heading?" He asked. "Eientei? I have business there, myself."

"Eh? Eientei? I see, you're here in place of Keine!" The girl mentioned the teacher.

"Yes, that's right."

"If so, please hurry! Lady Yagokoro said it'd be a major problem if it kept up like this! I'll tell Lady Yagokoro you're coming, so I'm going on ahead!" The rabbit girl disappeared into the trees on his right.

Accelerator tried to follow her, and immediately found himself lost, surrounded by bamboo. Accelerator stopped in his tracks. In front of him was a wild Puppet with long, pale hair and a dark red hakama. AcceleratorN popped out and pointed at it. This Puppet should be added to the party.

Judging from its color scheme, it was probably a Fire-type Puppet. Accelerator readied a Seal Thread, and sent out his newly leveled up CirnoN equipped with its blue Sapphire jewel that boosts its first Water-type attack per battle.

The wild Puppet used a Spread Fighting-type attack, but that wasn't enough to dent CirnoN. Accelerator threw the Thread. The pale-haired Puppet followed up with a Tiger Rush, the generic priority attack. It did considerably more with a crit. Accelerator could see the wild Puppet's Focus Attacking potential.

Finally, the higher leveled CirnoN ended the battle with its Sapphire-boosted Frost Edge. The jewel burst open and surrounded the ice fairy Puppet with a blue aura. The shard of ice doubled in size before shooting toward its foe. The sound of a Fire barrier being pierced echoed through the forest and the Fire-type Puppet was effectively caught!

Accelerator placed both Puppets in the box to rest them up. Running his thumb across the new Puppet's thread, he learned what it was. It was a level 17 MokouN, and its stats were S's across the boardーwell, aside from an E in Spread Attack. The Spread Fighting-type attack it used first was called Skull Breaker. It also had the primary Fire attack called Fiery Game. With this new addition, Accelerator started calculating different ways to evolve his overall team. He gave MokouN the Diamond to increase Tiger Rush's power and returned the Voidium M to AcceleratorN.

With all that being done, Accelerator still had no idea where Eientei was. He would end up getting even more lost in this forest. Luckily for him, he had just the Puppet with the power to help him: NazrinN had the power to find lost things. He called out the mouse Puppet.

"Find the lost Eientei."

"Squeak!" The Puppet nodded and started racing through the forest. Accelerator also brought out AcceleratorN just to keep up with its speed.

In no time, they reached a clearing. Two rabbit girls were standing in front of a large, old-fashioned Japanese mansion. The residents of Gensokyo loved their mansions, didn't they?

"Ah, you're finally here!" A rabbit with long, light purple hair called out to him. "You're a lifesaver!" She smiled. "I'll go ahead and tell Master. Tewi, take this human with you, okay?"

"Ye~ah. I got it already." A rabbit with short, black hair replied. The purple-haired one went into the mansion.

Tewi walked up to Accelerator and winked at him. "So what are you really here for?" She smiled mischieviously.

Accelerator was about to explain that he was mainly after the device from Kourindou, but he was cut off.

"I was told you were really strong, but is that actually true? It's fishy. Super fishy. Therefore, have a match with me first. This'll prove if you're the real deal."

Tewi sent out Pita, a Level 20 TewiN. A white field glowed around it. It was Void-type. AcceleratorN appeared right away and knocked it out with a single barrier-piercing Panic Call. The vector controlling Puppet shouted in such a way that the opposing lucky rabbit Puppet fainted out of fright. The battle was over in an instant.

"H~m, so you really are capable. Go on in then. Eirin's inside." Tewi stayed in place.

"...You don't want to come in with me?"

"Eh? No one said I had to take you all the way there, right?" She winked and smiled mischievously again. "Hey, hey, hurry up! You wanna make her mad?"

Oh well, Accelerator wasn't worried. He walked forward into the mansion. Inside, he found more rabbits who pointed him to a room at the west end. He entered the room without knocking.

"Master! This is the one!" The purple-haired rabbit exclaimed.

Next to her was a lady with braided silver hair, wearing red and blue clothing covered with constellation patterns.

"So you're Keine's representative, just like the rabbit said. I am Eirin Yagokoro. I practice medicine here. It's a bit sudden, but allow me to test you. This matter requires a capable Puppet user. I'll leave this to you, Udonge.

The purple-haired rabbit responded in turn. "Understood, Master. Please leave it to me. Full power, full speed! I'll be testing you!"

Udonge sent out Assertion, the level 22 UdongeN. Its shadow flashed with iridescent colors. It was Illusion-type. Accelerator didn't have much for Illusion Puppets. His best bet would be using NazrinN's Hematite-boosted Hammer Throw and CirnoN's Sapphire-boosted Frost Edge.

And it worked. It wasn't a problem that he used two Puppets to take down one.

"Amazing... As expected of the one Keine turned to." They may be overestimating him. It was his Puppets that did all the work after all. "You're quite capable." Maybe there was something wrong with everyone, but then again, it could just be him.

"Yes, you seem up to the task." Eirin agreed. "You should be fine. Please help us, Accelerator." So Eientei gets the Tengu Extra too, huh? How else would they already know his name?

"What we want is for you to meditate a quarrel between our princess and a certain person. I have patients, so it would be a problem if they ran wild in the examination room. If it was just the princess, I could come up with some way to stop her. But both at the same time, and using Puppets on top of that, it's just gotten out of hand. So we want you to stop one of them. Follow me once you've made your preparations."

Accelerator used his box to heal his Puppets, and then followed Eirin to the examination room.

"Well, it's as you can see..." Accelerator could see two Puppets bashing into each other. "As I said before, I want you to intervene in this squabble. I want you to stop the white-haired one. The name of our princess's natural enemy is Fujiwara no Mokou. She's quite formidable, but I'm sure that you'll be fine. Now, before the damage spreads. Let's go."

Accelerator recognized the white-haired one controlling the Keine Puppet on the left. It was the same figure his new MokouN was based on. So this was the original Mokou. So the one on the right must be the princess. Eirin rushed to the princess and Accelerator walked up to Mokou.

"What? You're getting in my way?" Mokou was surprised. "No matter how you look at it, you're no match for me. But okay, I just have to get rid of anyone that gets in my way. I'll fight you holding nothing back."

She called out to Spicily, the level 27 KeineN. It jumped in front of Accelerator and swords popped out of the ground where it landed. Normally, a MokouN would be perfect for dealing with Steel-types, having Fire- and Fighting-type skills. However, Accelerator's MokouN was too weak on the Spread Attack side, and its only Focus attack was Tiger Rush. That and it was currently severely underleveled.

He sent out NazrinN instead. It had a stronger, new Earth skill, and Accelerator wanted to test it out.

"Royal Prismー!"

"Raid!" The KeineN preempted its foe with a skill that caused the opponent to flinch 100% of the time on the first turn out. It didn't cause too much damage, but it did fake Accelerator out.

"...Well, use Royal Prism now." Colorful beams of light shot toward Spicily, who shielded its eyes from the light. The attack didn't quite knock it out, but it did cause Spicily to flinch as well! In fact, Royal Prism had a 30% chance to make the foe flinch. Accelerator was lucky. One more Royal Prism finished off Mokou's first Puppet.

"No matter, here's my second Puppet! Go, Infrequent!"

A level 29 FutoN blew in on a gust of wind. It was close to a style change. Accelerator thought a Hematite-boosted Hammer Throw should be enough to knock out a Wind Puppet, but Infrequent outsped and washed NazrinN away with a Bubble Orb. So it was a dual Wind/Water type. And a fast one at that. What could Accelerator do about that?

"It's your turn, AcceleratorN!"

"Go for another Bubble Orb, Infrequent!" But the bubbles could not damage the white Puppet due to its Frail Health. "What?!"

Accelerator entered his yoga pose. It was time to end this.

"Law of Boundless Space!" The blinding whiteness was too much for Infrequent to handle. As the room returned to its original brightness, the FutoN was fainted on the ground.

"Wow." Mokou was impressed. "But I still have one more Puppet left! Here's my strongest! Go, Triumphalism!"

Her last Puppet was a level 32 Extra Mokou, or a MokouE. It was the first non-Normal style Puppet Accelerator met. It appeared accompanied by a rush of fire.

Fearing the Fighting-type Skull Breaker, Accelerator withdrew AcceleratorN, and sent out MokouN, mainly as a sacrifice to safely bring in CirnoN afterward. However, an unexpected benefit occurred.

Triumphalism went for a Fire Wall instead of a Skull Breaker. The Fire-type attack still took out its doppelganger due to their difference in levels, but upon knocking off MokouN's Diamond, the skill doubled in base power, activating MokouN's Hate Incarnate ability. The smaller Mokou Puppet exploded, and Triumphalism lost a quarter of its max HP as a result.

"I see, so you can use it like that." Mokou was doubly impressed. She was also flattered that someone else was using a Puppet of herself.

Accelerator sent out CirnoN. "Come on, CirnoN! Let's end this with a Sapphire-boosted Frost Edge!" It dealt massive damage, piercing the Fire barrier, but Triumphalism survived on 1 HP!

Mokou entered a running stance. Then she jumped into the air with a flying knee kick. Spreading her arms apart over her head, she turned her body into an aerial Psi (Ψ) character. She and her Puppet were covered with a brilliant red aura.

"Indiscriminate Ignition!"

Three consecutive circles of fire appeared around Triumphalism, each one burning hotter than the previous. Then, they exploded, one by one, engulfing the room in a sea of flames. CirnoN tried its best to protect its master from the heat, using its ice powers to cool the room down, but the power of the resisted M-Skill was still too high. CirnoN ended up fainting.

"...That wasn't too bad yourself." Accelerator complimented. He was still sweating from the intense heat. "Okay, I lied about the Frost Edge ending things. We'll end it with a Tiger Rush instead." He called out AcceleratorN again and ended the match with a quick rush.

"A~h. I lost magnificently." Mokou was happy that she got to witness something so cool. "And to think that Hieda no Akyuu recognized you too. I give, I give. I don't even feel like it any more. Uh... Guess I put you out a little. Looks like I went a little too wild, so I'll leave it at this and head back to the Bamboo Forest. Come see me if you get the time. I can give you something cool. And I'd love to have another match with you." She picked up her Puppets and left the room.

It looked like Eirin was done reprimanding her princess as well. They both looked somewhat singed. Probably from Mokou's last attack.

"Wait, Mokou! This isn't over yet..." The princess whined.

"That's enough, Princess." Eirin scolded her some more.

The princess grumbled as she picked up her Puppets. Eirin walked up to Accelerator.

"Thanks for your help. We managed to settled the matter somehow. We are in your debt, Accelerator. Hm... We need to reward you somehow."

"It's good that you brought that up." Accelerator responded. "I want the device you guys bought from Kourindou."

"Eh? The Woodcutter Doll? Yes, we're done with it, so I don't mind."

Accelerator got the Woodcutter Doll!

"I'm sure you can put it to more practical use than just sitting in our storeroom. We'll take care of cleaning up here. Accelerator... Your journey..."

"Ah, that. I'm heading north next, to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

"I see. Then I'll ask one of the rabbits to escort you through the Bamboo Forest. If you need it, talk to the rabbit outside." Not that he needed it. He had NazrinN to find the lost exit at the worst. "Take care on your way."

Outside, Accelerator met Tewi again. She was loafing around.

"Hey." He called out.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard. Escort you? I don't wanna~"

"Heh, I figured. How about to Mokou's place instead?"

"...I know where that is, but why do you want to go there?"

"She said she had something cool to give me. That and she wanted another match. You weren't there when we battled but you surely heard what happened, right? Don't you want to know what that was all about for yourself?"

He didn't really know why he wanted the lucky rabbit to come with him when he could once again just rely on NazrinN. It must have been his human intuition kicking in. Unbeknownst to him, Tewi Puppets, as well as Tewi herself, had the power to increase the fortune of humans nearby. They had no effect on youkai though.

"Plus, you've got to be pretty bored hanging around people like the princess."

"I can make ways to kill boredom... But you make some pretty solid points." She was slowly getting roped in. "I'm sold. Let's go."

 **Xxxxx**

 **...So magically regrowing trees are a thing. AcceleratorN can use vectors to cut normal trees, so I needed a good reason for Accel to go to Eientei. Because I really wanted to add Mokou into this story.**

 **Now we know what three of the seventeen M-Skills look like.**

 **Some fans abbreviate Extra Puppets with EX at the end of their names, i.e. MokouEX. I'm going with just E for a certain reason. There are currently six Styles of Puppets: Assist, Defense, Extra, Normal, Power, and Speed. There won't be six for long.**

 **Accel's Puppets are nearing level 30 and are almost due for their Style Changes. If anyone can see a strategy forming between at least three of these Puppets so far, cheers! If you can't, I know why. Only I know what AcceleratorN evolves into. But I have mentioned my favorite attack (at the end of chapter 3), which may serve as a hint.**

 **Just in case I don't get around to it or skip it next chapter, here are the stat spreads, typings, and abilities of all the Accel Puppet Styles for anyone who's interested:**

 **AcceleratorN**  
 **Void/Dark**  
 **45/75/40/75/45/70 BST 350**  
 **Frail Health/Curse Return**

 **AcceleratorS**  
 **Void/Dark**  
 **90/90/90/90/90/150 BST 600**  
 **Curse Return/Western Expanse**

 **AcceleratorD**  
 **Void/Light**  
 **35/100/100/115/150/100 BST 600**  
 **Frail Health/Curse Return**

 **AcceleratorE**  
 **Nether/Sound**  
 **80/125/60/80/130/125 BST 600**  
 **Nimble/Strategist**

 **I'm sure we all can agree than Defense Accelerator is the most broken because it retains Frail Health with only a single weakness to Dark. So I'll make sure Accel doesn't pick that one. Out of the other two though, I'm wondering which one readers would most like to see. All three styles will make their appearances in one way or another, but I'm not so sure about the order yet.**

 **Maybe some actual tpdp/touhoumon/pokemon players or interested readers can help me out? Cheers!**


	7. vs MokouE II

**This is kind of a filler chapter, in that nothing like this happens in game, and it doesn't really progress the story. This is just me building and testing Accel's team so that I can decide which Style AcceleratorN is going to evolve into. AcceleratorN does not evolve this chapter.**

 **Xxxxx**

"Eh? You're here already?" Mokou was surprised by Accelerator and Tewi arriving in front of her house unannounced. "And you brought the leader of the rabbits with you?"

"You're the leader?" Accelerator asked Tewi disinterestedly. He was slightly curious though.

"I am the oldest after all." Tewi made a smug grin and put her hands on her hips in a childish pose.

Accelerator pretended not to hear and turned back to Mokou. "I told her she could be a spectator for our rematch."

"Well, I'm in the middle of training my Puppets. Spicily is almost ready for her Style Change. You can use the grass near my house to train your Puppets too. I know yours were close to changing too."

"Hey, Accelerator." Tewi's eyes narrowed. "I came to see a cool match, not watch you two train."

"Although, it won't be much of a match if his side is still all Normal Puppets." Mokou interjected. "Your name's Accelerator. Isn't there a way you can accelerate their growth?"

Silence.

 _'I don't know how to do that.'_ Accelerator realized.

In the first place, he was a normal human now, albeit magically (?) charged with Puppet electricity. But he once used his powers to rewrite Last Order's brain to save her from a virus, so manipulating a Puppet's experience curve was possible in theory.

But AcceleratorN was the one with all his powers now. Would the Puppet know what he wanted it to do?

He called out AcceleratorN and MokouN, and explained to them what he wanted to do.

"...So use your vectors to modify MokouN's growth rate such that it can get to level 30 after a single battle."

AcceleratorN placed its hand on MokouN's head. The Fire Puppet started vibrating, almost phasing in and out of existence. After a few seconds, it was done. AcceleratorN raised its hand from MokouN's head, balled it into a fist, and bopped the Fire Puppet over the head.

MokouN retaliated with a bunch of Skull Breakers, piercing the vector Puppet's Dark barrier, causing it to faint.

MokouN grew to level 30!

Well that was something. Accelerator returned the two Puppets to the box.

"Now let's see what this Style Change thing is all about." Accelerator inspected the Thread.

"There should be three Styles available." Mokou explained. "For my Puppet, you'll see the Speed Style, which is all about attacking first, the Power Style, which can attack on both Focus and Spread sides, and the Extra Style, which relies on Terrain support."

"Terrain?" Accelerator asked.

"You'll see in our rematch."

"Well, I see only one Style Change available." They were all confused.

"Really? What is it?" Tewi asked.

"Accelerated Mokou? It's Fire/Dark."

"Smoke Deploy or Up Tempo as the abilities? Looks like it can be either a bulky pivot or a set up sweeper." Mokou commented.

"Well, either way, a Style Changed Puppet is always going to be stronger than a Normal Styled Puppet." Tewi added.

Accelerator accepted the change. MokouN changed into MokouX!

"So, what new Skills did you learn? Puppets generally learn new Skills after changing." Mokou told him.

"Ah, there's finally a Focus Fire attack." MokouX learned Rising Sun! It was an attack that raised the user's Speed.

There was also a new Focus Dark attack called Audacity that increased in power for every current stat boost. That could work with Rising Sun plus Up Tempo increasing Speed every turn. But there was another Focus Dark attack called Changeling that let the user switch places with another Puppet on its team. It could lower an enemy Puppet's Focus Attack with Smoke Deploy and then switch out to a more offensive Puppet like AcceleratorN or NazrinN. So that's what Mokou meant by a bully pivot.

Accelerator went with Changeling for now, but if he could find a certain hold item, he was sure he could get Audacity to high amounts of power.

"So you're going with the bulky pivot, I see." Mokou was amused.

"Okay, let's have a one-on-one match between our two newly evolved Puppets! My new Defense Keine against your new Accelerated Mokou. That should be fair." Mokou announced. She seemed quite confident.

Although Accelerator wasn't as confident in MokouX's 1v1 capabilities, he accepted the challenge.

They sent out their Puppets at the same time. MokouX deployed smoke upon entry, lowering Spicily's Focus Attack.

"Let's go, MokouX, use Flame ChargeーI mean Nitro ChargeーI mean Fff... Rising Sun." Accelerator rolled his eyes as he was confusing his worlds, but MokouX understood.

It covered itself in flames and charged at its foe, effectively raising its Speed. The Steel barrier was pierced by the Fire attack, but Spicily survived thanks to its sheer bulk in HP and Focus Defense.

"Spicily, use Mountain Breaker!" The KeineD delivered a punch that could shatter a mountain. MokouX's Dark barrier was pierced as well. But with Spicily's average Focus Attack stat, coupled with the deployed smoke, the attack didn't do as much damage as Mokou had hoped. Both Puppets survived the first turn!

Then a change happened in the middle of the battle. Spicily started morphing. Its blue highlights turned green and large horns grew out of its head. Accelerator looked to Mokou for explanation.

"That's my Puppet's signature Were-Hakutaku ability. At 50% health or less, she changes forms. It's not just aesthetics, though. Her Focus Attack and Speed shoot up in exchange for her Defenses. She gains a secondary Fighting type, too. So Mountain Breaker gets a same type attack bonus. Even with your Smoke Deploy, it'll still knock you out. And we both gained Speed this turn, but I'm still unfamiliar with speed tiers, so I don't know who's faster now."

Things were heating up.

"So this next turn will decide everything." Tewi remarked.

Both Puppeteers shouted their attacks simultaneously.

The Puppets clashed.

Dust rose from the ground.

The winner stood tall, and the loser collapsed.

"That was a good match, Accelerator."

He had won. MokouX was faster.

"Wow." Tewi was amazed as well. "I want a MokouX Puppet. Ah, but I want a KeineD Puppet too! These Puppets are so cool!"

"As a reward for beating me again, I'll give you this Firium M Shard to give to your MokouX. It'll probably help in our real rematch."

"Thanks. Do I have to jump though?"

"Yup, that's part of the deal."

"Tch."

"Don't click your tongue. M-Skills are supposed to be tough to do. That's why they're so powerful. But remember you can only use one per battle."

Xxxxx

For their real rematch, Accelerator lead with CirnoN while Mokou lead with her second Style Changed Puppet, Infrequent, the FutoP. Instead of a gust of wind, it was accompanied by a rush of fire this time.

"Wasn't it Wind/Water before?" He was curious.

"Yeah, some Style Changes can drastically alter the Puppet's type." Mokou explained. She liked this mentor or teacher role she had going with Accelerator. "Now watch closely, this is where the fun starts."

First, Infrequent set up a Terrain [Suzaku]. The ground became hot and bits of fire escaped the surface. CirnoN used Frost Edge which knocked Infrequent out in one shot. But that was just preparation. Mokou sent out Triumphalism, the MokouE, next.

Triumphalism hit CirnoN with a Wind Wave, which did reasonable damage. CirnoN tried responding with another Frost Edge, but it couldn't knock it out. What's more, Triumphalism was gradually regaining its lost health due to its ability, Southern Expanse, which only took effect under Terrain [Suzaku]. There was nothing CirnoN could do, and it went down to a couple more Wind Waves.

This was looking like a loss for Accelerator. The rest of his Puppets were all weak to Skull Breaker. He handed over a few grimoires to Mokou as per his loss.

"Now I want a MokouE as well! Where do you find Mokou Puppets?!" Tewi was enjoying herself.

"They're pretty rare, but your best bet is near my house." Mokou responded.

Accelerator started leaving, saying he'd be back for round three after Style Changing the rest of his Puppets.

"Ah, wait!" Tewi stopped him. "Before you go, call AcceleratorN out again! I want him to accelerate Pita's growth rate too!"

Accelerator sighed. The day wouldn't be over just like that.

 **Xxxxx**

 **...MokouX is based on the new Intimidate Incineroar. Specifically, the WP, Flame Charge/Bulk Up/Power Trip/Drain Punch set everyone's using now. I really like that set. Although, I gave it Torracat's Speed, taking away from its useless SpA. If anyone's interested in its stat spread, here it is:**

 **95/115/90/50/90/90 BST 530**

 **Coincidentally, if I had kept Incineroar's base 60 Speed, KeineD-Hakutaku would have outsped even after the Rising Sun.**

 **Power Trip is known as 'Be Audacious' [つけあがる** **| Tsukeagaru] in Japanese, so I shortened that to 'Audacity'. I'm basically going to do that for all new moves from SuMo/USUM that don't exist in TPDP.**

 **Cheers!**


	8. vs MarisaS

**This story is becoming easier to write than my others. Maybe I'm like in the zone or something. Or maybe it's because there's already a solid plotline to follow to a concrete end here whereas my other stories run on pure imagination with no one else's input.**

 **Btw, this guest review system just doesn't work. Try making an account first so I can respond in a timely manner.**

 **Xxxxx**

Accelerator left the Bamboo Forest and headed straight to Kourindou.

"What?! What are you doing hereーI mean what brings you here today, Accelerator?" Rinnosuke changed his frightened expression to a smile in an instant.

"Oh? Almost seems like you're not happy to see me." Accelerator returned the smile, laced with a bit of killing intent.

"Nonsense! Hey, looks like the Eientei trip went swimmingly. I see you have my Woodcutter Doll hanging from your waist."

"You mean my Woodcutter Doll." Accelerator corrected.

"...Of course." Rinnosuke sweatdropped. "So you're heading straight for the Scarlet Devil Mansion next?"

"Yeah, not quite yet. I'm going back to the Bamboo Forest for a bit."

Rinnosuke was openly flabbergasted. Why would anyone want to get lost in there again? Unless...

"Oh, you caught a Mokou or Tewi Puppet, am I right?"

"...Yeah, that's right." Accelerator did learn that Mokou and Tewi Puppets made good guides for the Bamboo Forest, but they still couldn't compare to Accelerator's NazrinN in terms of speed and general prowess in finding things. But he guessed Rinnosuke didn't need to know about that. But coming back to why he was here.

"You sell hold items for Puppets. Do you have one that increases stats upon being hit?" Accelerator asked. He had to make sure before committing to a certain moveset.

"You mean like the Rebellion Tome? I have one of those."

"Rebellion Tome?"

"If the holder receives a barrier-piercing attack, Focus Attack and Spread Attack are both raised by two stages each."

"Perfect. That's exactly what I'm looking for." In Accelerator's world, such an item was known as the Weakness Policy. This was the item that could get Audacity to high amounts of power in an instant.

"The market price goes for $250,000."

"...I'll battle you for it." Accelerator suggested.

"Heh, are you sure about that? My new RinnosukeN is pretty strong."

It wasn't.

"How could you do that to my poor RinnosukeN?!" Rinnosuke bawled, groveling on the floor over his collapsed Puppet.

"You should know by now that Dream Skills don't penetrate any barriers."

"But did you really have to use Law of Boundless Space?!"

"You said it was strong." Accelerator knew it was weak.

"I was bluffing! Just take your Rebellion Tome and leave me and RinnosukeN alone!"

Xxxxx

Returning to Mokou's house one more time, Accelerator heard two girls conversing happily.

"Mokou! How does my team look now?" Tewi asked. She finally found a MokouN Puppet.

"Looks like a pretty solid lineup. Oh, Accelerator's back." Mokou noticed.

"Ah, I'm ready for round three. I'll be leading with MokouX." He had made a few changes to his Fire Puppet. It was a set up sweeper now.

"I see, then I'm leading with Infrequent."

They sent out their Puppets. This time, Infrequent was the one to deploy smoke, while MokouX didn't. Accelerator had changed its ability to Up Tempo, which raised its Speed at the end of each turn.

The first turn was nothing but preparation. Infrequent set up a Terrain [Suzaku] like before, while MokouX used Dark Power. It surrounded itself with a layer of black energy, which raised both its Focus stats. It currently had a boost to Focus Defense as well as Speed thanks to Up Tempo.

The second turn saw Infrequent use Changeling, returning to its Thread and switching places with Triumphalism. The two Mokou Puppets stood face to face, glaring at each other. The only way to tell them apart was the layer of darkness surrounding MokouX. MokouX expanded the darkness by using one more Dark Power. It currently had a total of five stat boosts. That increased Audacity's power to 120.

"Now, Audacity!" Accelerator commanded. The two layers of darkness rose up and attacked Triumphalism. The MokouE survived due to its high HP and higher level. It retaliated with a Skull Breaker, which proved to be a misplay.

The Fighting Skill pierced the Dark barrier and activated MokouX's Rebellion Tome. White light flew up from the Tome and circled around MokouX, sharply raising both its Attack stats. Covered with black and white energy, it now had a total of ten stat boosts, meaning Audacity's power peaked to 220. There was nothing surviving an Audacity now. Plus, Up Tempo raised the power by 20 more points each turn.

The black and white energy shot toward each of Mokou's remaining Puppets. Nothing was outspeeding after just two Up Tempos either. Even Mokou's new Assist Eirin and Power Tewi couldn't handle the power of Audacity. MokouX effectively swept a team of five with its new moveset.

"I give. Your Accelerated Puppet is really strong. Here, I'll give you this Suzaku Charm as per my loss. It raises a Puppet's Focus Attack by one stage in Terrain [Suzaku]." Mokou was very sportsmanlike when she lost.

"Hey, Accelerate my new Mokou Puppet next!" Tewi commanded.

"No. Only one Accelerated Puppet per person." Accelerator just made up that rule.

"Aw, boo."

"I don't have one yet. If I catch another Normal Puppet, will you Accelerate it?" Mokou asked.

"First of all, it's my Puppet that's Accelerating their growth rates, not me." Accelerator wanted to make that clear. "If you really want one that badly, why don't you just get your own Accelerator Puppet?"

Silence.

"Where do you get one?" Mokou asked.

"I found mine at the back of the Hakurei Shrine."

"...Yeah, there's no way we can get there." The two girls agreed.

"Sounds like a personal problem." Accelerator commented.

"No, it's a general problem. Everyone in Gensokyo knows that there's a slumbering oni blocking the path to the back of the shrine."

...Seriously? That did sound like a big problem. If he was the only one with an Accelerator Puppet, then people who wanted Accelerated Puppets would keep coming to him. Unless there was another location where Puppets of himself could be found, Accelerator decided to keep the method of Style Changing to Accelerated Puppets as secret as possible.

He made the girls promise not to open their mouths about the method. Mokou explained that she didn't really have anyone to tell secrets to anyway, but Accelerator was still suspicious of the rabbit. He turned to Mokou.

"Make sure that rabbit doesn't use her TewiX where others can see it."

"Hey, I'm right here!" Tewi complained. "And her name's Pita!"

Xxxxx

Accelerator followed his NazrinN out of the forest a second time and met the ordinary magician Marisa snooping around the entrance.

"What a coincidence meetin' you here Accelerator."

He doubted it. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Givin' it your all in your own way, huh? I've been hearin' things." She ignored his glare. "Went to do somethin' at Eientei, right?" Did she hear from Akyuu, Keine, or Rinnosuke? "So Keine trusted you with that." So it was the teacher. "That means you're stronger than before, huh?"

Accelerator knew what was coming. He could already hear the rival theme playing in his head. Specifically, an 8-bit remix of Magus Night. It was a rival battle waiting to happen.

"Since we're here, let's have a battle."

"Of course." Accelerator sighed and shrugged. He sent out his level 25 NazrinN.

"Go, Sinkiang!" A level 28 AliceN. Three metal blades erupted in front of it.

"Ah, I see you have some new Puppets too." Marisa noticed.

"As do you. Been trying to find some Steel Puppets to check my AcceleratorN, eh?"

"Of course! That thing is so annoying! Use Destruction, Sinkiang!" The Void Skill took a good chunk out of the mouse Puppet's health.

But Royal Prism did more. Knowing NazrinN would win this matchup, Marisa withdrew Sinkiang and sent Told, the level 29 PatchouliN, out into the next Royal Prism. It didn't take it well. Marisa was using it as a sacrifice to safely bring out her next Puppet, Clxvii, the level 29 NitoriN.

Fearing a Water Skill, Accelerator also withdrew his Puppet and switched it with CirnoN to resist. Clxvii did use a Water attack, Water Ball, which CirnoN ate up like nothing.

"Grrr, why do you have these fat Puppets that never faint?" Marisa was on tilt. Any more pressure and she would start making mistakes.

"Time to bring out the big guns. Go, Rhodes!" Marisa switched again to her strongest Puppet, Rhodes, the level 30 MarisaS. Electricity flew out in all directions, signifying the Puppet's primary Electric type.

Accelerator expected an electric attack, and switched back to NazrinN, hoping to absorb it with its Earth type. All this switching made Accelerator glad there were no entry hazards on the field, else these Puppets would be losing a lot more health per turn.

"Oh, come on!" Marisa was angry now. She realized she had nothing to take an Earth attack like Royal Prism. She needed a way to keep NazrinN in when Clxvii was in, or CirnoN in when Rhodes was in, but Accelerator could always switch into the appropriate counter.

In addition, Accelerator kept up offensive pressure with CirnoN's Apple Bomb and NazrinN's Royal Prism. He didn't have to use his other two Puppets.

Eventually, Marisa became so tilted she used up her M-Skill on the last turn before Rhodes went down. Marisa put the back of her hand to her forehead, closed one eye, and extended her other arm toward Accelerator as if to flick a coin at him. Both Marisa and Rhodes were enveloped in a shocking yellow aura.

 _'...Where did you even learn that?'_ Accelerator wondered. That pose was beyond familiar, as he experienced it several times in his original world.

"Final Spark!" Marisa prayed that he'd randomly switch to CirnoN in this turn. Otherwise, this M-Skill would go to waste, and she would lose.

Unfortunately, no such thing happened as NazrinN stayed in to absorb the final attack.

"...Whew~. Let my guard down." She reverted back to her friendly atmosphere after the battle. "Never thought you'd be this strong. Anyway, where ya headed? The Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

And how did she know that?

"Yeah, a dollmaker referred me to a witch who lives there." Accelerator explained.

"I see, so Alice said that... I'mma hurry on ahead then. This time, I'm gonna get stronger so I don't keep losing you the likes of you!" She turned around and started to walk off before turning back once more.

"By the way, it was a favor for Keine this time around, right? If so, you might wanna drop by the school before ya head to the SDM. She's pretty straight-laced, so she might have somethin' for ya." She really left this time.

Accelerator returned his two Puppets to the box and noticed something purple flashing across their Threads.

Style Change. They had both reached level 30 from the battle with Marisa. There was no Accelerated option, as they leveled up the standard way. Accelerator made careful considerations, and took into account the Puppets' emblems, the stat that they excelled at. The Blue emblem CirnoN excelled at Focus Defense, while the White emblem NazrinN excelled at Spread Defense. They were both natural defenders. The battle with Marisa proved that. They were his defensive core while MokouX and AcceleratorN were his offensive core. His team was looking quite balanced.

He went with Assist Cirno, capitalizing on priority Skills, and Extra Nazrin, capitalizing on passing stat boosts.

That meant AcceleratorN was the only one left to Style Change. He focused on training it up next.

Xxxxx

At the history school in the Human Village, Accelerator opened the door to Keine's classroom without knocking.

"Yo."

"Oh, Accelerator." She looked relieved. She walked up to him.

"Who's this, sensei? Your boyfriend?" A brat asked while picking his nose.

"Oi, brat."

"Don't mind them, Accelerator." She turned around and made a face at the brat, but Accelerator couldn't see what kind of face she made. Turning back around, she continued. "Looks like you solved the problem at Eientei just fine. That sort of thing happens a lot, but the timing couldn't have been worse this time. You really saved me. It's not much of a reward, but won't you take these?"

Accelerator got Skill Cards 70 and 71!

"Those are the defensive fields. Field Barrier halves the damage your team takes from Spread attacks for five turns, while Field Protect works the same way for Focus attacks. I hope it'll help on your journey. Take care!" She smiled as she pushed him out of the classroom.

How rude. If Accelerator was any less of a human being, he would use MokouX's flames to burn the school down for treating him so poorly. Of course, without any casualties because he was done with that noise.

But he figured they weren't on too bad of terms. And he had just the right Puppet to teach the Skill Cards to. CirnoA retained its Curiosity ability, meaning status skills like the defensive fields would always have priority. He taught them to the ice fairy Puppet as soon as he left the classroom.

Heading north from the Human Village's west exit, Accelerator ran into the trees Rinnosuke was talking about. Just to make sure, Accelerator broke off a branch using his own strength. The branch grew back immediately. It was like an illusion. Maybe if he had a certain right hand, he wouldn't even need the Woodcutter Doll.

He placed the toy robot-looking device on the ground in front of the trees. The device started scanning the landscape. Once it was done, it fired a high-powered laser, incinerating all the illusory trees leaving the standard forest trees as is.

So that's how it worked.

He continued forward, traversing over the smoking ground.

 **Xxxxx**

 **...Terrains got some buffs in Pokemon, so I'm giving the tpdp Terrains the same buffs. Well, almost the same. The new Terrain Charms (Terrain Seeds) increase the respectively colored stat. The red Suzaku Charm increases FoA, the blue Seiryu Charm increases FoD, the black Genbu Charm increases SpA, and the white Byakko Charm increases SpD. This makes Suzaku and Genbu a little bit more offensive. There would be a Charm for Terrain [Kohryu], but the effect of Kohryu negates all abilities and items, so a Kohryu Charm would never activate anyway.**

 **And of course, there's the Terrain Extender to increase the number of turns the Terrain stays up.**

 **Marisa normally has only three Puppets at this point, but I gave her a NitoriN to even out the playing field. She would have lost too easily without it. She's supposed to be a rival along with Reimu after all.**

 **We almost saw what the Electrium M-Skill looked like, if only Accel messed up with double switching. But there's no way a sober player would make that mistake. We'll see it later instead.**

 **Keine normally gives you Skill Card 78, Continue (Rest), but I felt dual Fields would actually be useful for the strategy I'm building up for Accel's team.**

 **And normally, you'd get the dual Fields from a peddler, but I want Accel to stay clear of those for a while.**

 **How do you like my variation of the Woodcutter Doll?**

 **Cheers!**


	9. vs SakuyaS & RemiliaP

Eventually, Accelerator reached the large body of water known as the Misty Lake. He could see another one of Gensokyo's mansions on the other side of the lake. That must be the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

He called out his starter Puppet to fly him over the lake. Black tornadoes sprouted from the Puppet's back. Accelerator's toes skimmed the water as they flew across.

Landing on the opposite side of the lake, Accelerator saw Marisa sneaking into one of the mansion's many windows. Was she trying to get the information before him?

She turned around and caught his eye. She brought a finger to her lips and winked, asking for his silence. Accelerator raised one of his eyebrows. Would he really keep his silence?

He walked through the open gate, passed the snoozing gatekeeper and entered the Scarlet Devil Mansion's front door without knocking.

Red eyes appeared in the darkness before the lights came on. A small vampire girl wth red eyes, black wings, short light-blue hair and a light-pink mob cap stood in front of him in the foyer, as if she had expected him. She opened her mouth, revealing her sharp canines.

"How's it going there, ladies and gentlemen? Bringing you another TPDP session today in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. This time we've got an Accelerator showcase. We will be showing off a couple new sets of the Accelerator Puppets, starting with an anti-lead set of the Speed Style. Let's see how this does." She started a live commentary.

Accelerator stood silent. Did he hear that correctly? Did the vampire just say she had a couple Accelerator Puppets?

"I knew you'd be coming. I'm the mistress of this manor. And I can see the flow of fate. You have quite the fascinating destiny."

"Yeah. I have some business with a witch who lives here. I have a few questions about Puppets, and I was told she may have been involved." Accelerator explained.

"Ah, so you have business in the library. And I thought for sure you had come to see me..."

The girl put her hand on her hip and turned slightly to the side, but did not break eye contact.

"How about it? Once you're done with your business with Patchy, come pay me a visit. I'm sure I can guide you on the next step of your fate? Well then, take your time." The vampire disappeared into the darkness of the room behind her.

Now, if Accelerator remembered correctly, Marisa entered through one of the windows on the left side of the manor. He explored the left and found the library rather quickly. And in the library, he found the ordinary magician in question hiding behind a potted plant.

"Oh, Accelerator. You finally made it." She whispered. "I'm lookin' for books about the Puppets now. Hey, but be quiet. There'll be trouble if I'm found..."

Accelerator sighed. He guessed he'd do the same for the time being. As he walked briskly past the rows of bookshelves, he came across a little devil reading books on a step stool. She noticed him right away.

"Who~ are you, person I don't know?" The child devil smiled brightly, not having any suspicions about a young man showing up unannounced at the place she lived. "Well, it seems like you want to interrupt me reading. I can't let you do that!"

She threw a Seal Thread out. A TokikoN unraveled and started chirping.

"Aren't we supposed to be quiet in a library?" Accelerator wondered out loud as he sent out NazrinE to quietly throw a hammer at the chirping bird Puppet.

"...I'll let you have this book so ple~ase overlook this. Ah, I was just joking. That's not my book so please give it back."

She took back the romance novel she unintentionally gave him. What an interesting waste of time. Accelerator continued searching through the library.

"My, what an unusual guest." He heard a voice to his right.

A figure in pink pajamas and nightcap, who had long purple hair tied together with many ribbons, spoke to him. A gold crescent moon decorated her nightcap.

"Are you the keeper of this library?" Accelerator asked. She sure looked the part, with a pale, discerning expression and a cold, intellectual voice.

"You may say that. What are you here for? I don't think this place has anything to do with you."

"Your little devil friend just challenged me to a Puppet battle, I'm sure you heard the noise. And I just so happen to be investigating Puppets. Where they came from and what their goals are. What's more, I was pointed in this direction when I learned that Puppets move through magic."

"What, and so it follows that I'm suspicious?" The witch interjected.

"You may say that."

"Sorry, but that's different from my technique. And even if it was related, I have no obligation to tell you about it."

"Of course." Accelerator sighed once again. "Another wild goose chase, is it? Care to point me in a different direction?" He wasn't tired or irritated though. Just a little disappointed.

"...That's enough now, isn't it? Since you snuck in here, I simply must eliminate you."

She challenged him to a Puppet battle. How suspicious. AcceleratorN made quick work of her Light and Void Puppets with a couple Panic Calls.

 _'You might want to work on your Dark weakness.'_ Accelerator didn't say that out loud. But it went to show how much of a beginner she was at battling. She wasn't as suspicious as before. Perhaps she had much better things to do than training Puppets.

"...No action is pointless, even if time is, huh?" The witch philosophized.

"Wise words. I agree, I have been wasting time while Puppets are on the loose, but I still had to make sure that you weren't responsible."

"...Me being unrelated to the Puppets is true. If you don't believe me, ask that thief over there." She pointed to the potted plant Marisa was hiding behind.

"Heh, I was going to tell you about her. You don't seem too concerned about her though."

"She steals books all the time. I guess we're all used to her now. We'll deal with her later. Now, Remi called for you, right?"

Who called for him? Oh yeah, the vampire girl asked him to pay her a visit once he was done in the library.

"The mistress of the manor, right? Yeah. You know a shortcut to get to her?"

"You're not going to ask how I knew she called for you?"

"You must've heard. I'm sure her voice travels."

"Fair enough." She chuckled. "If you're going to where Remi is, use the door beyond here. Even if you ask whether it matters to me what happens, it's not like I can stop it."

"You can stop things with Puppets."

"Huh. An interesting concept."

Accelerator moved toward the door the witch motioned to. So Patchy and Remi. Those were the names of two of the residents of this mansion. Were those their real names, or just nicknames? Either way, Accelerator had a surefire way to find things. He called out NazrinE.

"Find the missing mistress of the manor."

"Squeak!"

Xxxxx

"The mistress's room is beyond here." The head maid told him, standing in his way. "I shouldn't let the human that doesn't even have an appointment through, should I? I shall completely rebuff you."

Didn't he have an appointment though? Or was that not considered an appointment? The head maid challenged him to yet another battle.

Her first Puppet was Checkup, the level 34 MeilingD. It was a Puppet of the gatekeeper that was currently snoozing on the job. Stone spikes erupted from the ground around Checkup before breaking into smaller particles and swirling up, forming a Dust Storm. That was MeilingD's ability, Choleric, at play.

"What's this?" He asked.

"It's Weather [Dust Storm]. At the end of each turn, your Puppets will take a bit of damage unless they are Earth or Steel. For example, Checkup is primarily Earth, so she is unaffected." She explained. How kind of her.

Luckily, NazrinE retained its Steel-type upon Style Changing, so Accelerator chose it as his lead. Metal blades appeared before it now instead of the stones.

"Sending out a Steel Puppet before an Earth Puppet. You must be very confident." The head maid mused.

Accelerator was indeed confident. He wanted to try out NazrinE's new Sound-type Skill, Primal Noise. Boosted by the power of the striped Onyx jewel, the sharp snarling noise pierced Checkup's Fighting barrier and dealt a nice blow to the higher leveled Puppet. If Checkup wasn't Earth-type, it would faint in the next turn due to the Dust damage.

Checkup returned an equal amount of damage with Charging Stun, a Fighting Skill that forced the foe back into its Thread and switch with an ally. CirnoA took NazrinE's place.

A quick Aquasonic would finally wash away the MeilingD, but the maid recalled it and switched in Svalbard, the level 30 KoakumaD. It was a Puppet of the little devil from the library. It didn't stay in long at all, as its Retreat Manual activated and sent it back to its Thread too.

The head maid finally sent out a Puppet of herself, Godhead, the level 36 SakuyaS. The head maid, named Sakuya, then explained how the battle would end in her win.

"Godhead possesses the ability Sand Force, which increases her Focus attacks' base power by 50% as long as Dust Storm is active. Judging from the Threads at your waist, you have a total of four Puppets, while I have five turns of Dust Storm left, thanks to Checkup's Sand Godstone lengthening the duration. Would you like to see how much a boosted Invisible Heart does to a CirnoA?"

"No, I would very much dislike seeing that." Accelerator switched in his AcceleratorN to absorb the Illusion attack. That was not a bad idea.

Switching could stall out a few turns of Dust, but there was a reason Sakuya saved her low-health MeilingD. She could just bring it in again after the Dust Storm ended to set up eight new turns of Dust. If Accelerator wanted to survive, he had to take out Godhead as quickly as possible.

And to do that, he would need to play with his opponent's predictions. He would need to stay in with AcceleratorN whenever he thought Godhead would go for its Illusion attack, and switch to CirnoA whenever he thought it would go for a Steel attack, all the while whittling it down with priority Tiger Rush and Aquasonic.

Every time he guessed correctly, he noticed Sakuya's cheek twitch, but she kept her standard smile like a poker face.

Eventually, a total of five Puppets fainted, as the second Dust Storm came to an end. Accelerator's three fainted mainly to Godhead's strong attacks, and Sakuya's two to a bunch of weak priority attacks. Both Puppeteers had one Puppet left.

Svalbard came back at full health, thanks to its Healing Power ability, and Accelerator was forced to play his trump card, MokouX.

"Dark Power."

Unfortunately for Sakuya, Svalbard's only attacking move was the resisted Changeling, which didn't switch it out due to it being the only Puppet left. This was the prime time for MokouX to set up as far as it could go. And finally...

"Haah... Audacity."

...The match was over.

That was truly the toughest Puppet battle Accelerator had participated in. He was mentally drained, but physically, he could still stand straight and tall.

"Let me see the mistress." He said.

"...It's my loss. I didn't think you'd be strong enough to make it this far."

"She told me to come here."

"Eh? You were told to come to the mistress's room? No way... The mistress said nothing to me of this..." Sakuya returned into the room behind her. After a few seconds, she came back out. "You may proceed." She bowed, opened the door for him, and then disappeared in a flash.

"My, you really made it all the way here." The mistress congratulated him as he walked in. "Once again, I'm this place's mistress, Remilia Scarlet. I am a descendent of vampires, those that feed on the blood of humans to live. Did you enjoy the path to reach this place?"

He didn't. Were it not for NazrinE, who was currently fainted, he would have been trapped in an eternal labyrinth full of fairy maid Puppeteers. But Remilia didn't care.

"I've been looking forward to playing with you myself." Great, it was one boss battle after the other. "Even if you say no, you will face me. Now, come at me for real! Otherwise... You'll become tonight's main dish!"

Accelerator still only had one Puppet available, while Remilia had three. However, MokouX did level up a bit from the battle with Sakuya. It learned a new Skill that might prove to be crucial here.

Remilia sent out Crossness, a level 36 SakuyaP. It was the same level as MokouX.

First, MokouX needed enough health to survive a barrier-piercing attack. It was currently around 50% of its max HP thanks to Sakuya's Svalbard and its resisted Changelings.

MokouX extended its arm toward its foe and clenched its fist, using Fighting energy to drain Crossness's life force. The attack was Aura Drain. The Fire Puppet regained just enough health to survive the Fighting-type Dancing Sword attack. The Rebellion Tome activated and MokouX was ready to sweep with Audacity.

Or rather sweep with Aura Drain since Remilia's other two Puppets were also susceptible to it. Erickson the FlandreS wasn't outspeeding after two Up Tempos, and Megadeath the RemiliaP wasn't knocking it out with any one attack.

Accelerator breathed a sigh of relief. Two boss battles in a row, over with.

 **Xxxxx**

 **...I may have tweaked the calcs in my favor, but it was definitely possible for a Speed Boost Incineroar to win those two battles. You can calc them yourself if you care to.**

 **I have no idea why I have to rationalize these battles. I guess it'd just bug me if they didn't at least make sense.**

 **Sakuya's team in game is nowhere near as strong as I just made it out to be. I just wanted her to be more of a challenge because she's my favorite Touhou character. I was half thinking of making her win, but that wouldn't progress the story. At least I think I've conveyed the frustration of facing two tough trainers back to back.**

 **In contrast, Remilia's team is generally considered scarier, having the first level 40 Puppet where the next highest level is originally 35. A die-hard tpdp fan may also notice I've been steadily bumping up the levels of the important characters' Puppets. This is partly to challenge Accel, but also partly to give me more options to write about, battle-wise. The RemiliaP may as well be level 49. A MokouX is still beating it. I think.**

 **By the way, the names were super on point this chapter. Especially Godhead and Megadeath. I've regained my lost love for Pyrotoz's Random Nickname Generator.**

 **Hey, but what about the Accelerator Puppets Remilia said she had? I'll get to that next time.**

 **Cheers!**


	10. vs Fairies of Light

**...Been a fat minute. Four months, in fact, since I last dropped this chapter, half-completed, b/c of studies. Uh... I'm back.**

 **While I was gone, I also took a look at the English translation of the Shard of Dreams version of this game. It was cool. I think I'll stick w/ the vanilla storyline for this fic though, since I've done so much already.**

 **As a short recap, Accel just beat Sakuya and Remilia at the SDM. That should be enough to jog your memory.**

 **Xxxxx**

"My, you're quite strong." Remilia acknowledged. "Did you really think I went all out? I'm just killing time, so there's no need for me to be serious."

"No. You have been holding something back from me. Something you said when I entered this mansion. It's been bothering me all this time." Accelerator pressed for information.

"You're referring to my AcceleratorS Puppets, I believe." The vampire guessed correctly. She leaned over her desk. "I'll let you in on a little secret, on a certain condition."

"And that is?"

"I can't stand it when such a strong Puppeteer doesn't give his Puppets any nicknames! If it were me, I'd come up with names with much better sense. How about it? Will you leave it to me?"

 _'Don't tell me.'_ Accelerator had a bad feeling. But agreed anyway. He wasn't really in a position to refuse such a meaningless condition when potential information on Accelerator Puppets were on the line. He cycled his Puppets through the box to heal them up, and called them out for Remilia's inspection.

Remilia took out a large tome from under her desk, and opened it to a seemingly random page.

 _'No, hang on. Isn't thatー_ _?'_

She ran her finger down from the top to the middle of the page.

"Leukocyte."

 _'That's a dictionary!'_

So this vampire was the reason those strong Puppeteers like Reimu and Marisa had such weirdly named Puppets!

Accelerator massaged his head and sighed as he re-greeted Leukocyte the AcceleratorN, Camphor the NazrinE, Besot the CirnoA, and Vindictive the MokouX.

"Now then," Remilia put away the dictionary, pleased with herself. "I'll tell you about these Puppets." She pulled out two Threads and called out two Puppets that looked identical to Accelerator's Leukocyte. "This one's named Doomsday, and that one is named Counterclockwise." She mentioned.

"No, I didn't ask what their names were." Accelerator sweatdropped. He'd rather find out where exactly she found them, or what Skills they had.

"I went through a lot of trouble to seal these two. One was hanging out in the garden, and one was roaming the halls." So they appeared in random places. That didn't help Accelerator much. "No matter how many times my little fairy maids tried to weaken them, these guys would always win in the end. So I took matters into my own hands. They were only level 30, yet they outsped my Megadeath! Luckily, they didn't have much to hurt me with, but the same went for me. I had to teach her the Skill Card for Light Javelin just to have a chance!"

Remilia went on with her story. Accelerator leaned that Doomsday and Counterclockwise were already Speed Style when she managed to seal them. So wild Puppets could even Style Change on their own at level 30. That was interesting.

She also covered their Skillpool, noting that they could learn a ton of priority Skills, as well as a Terrain changing Skill called Terrain [Byakko]. This Terrain made all Skills have complete accuracy for five turns, but coupled with AcceleratorS's Western Expanse ability, it's attacks were boosted in power under of effects of Byakko. Remilia was about to test its power against her fairy maids before Accelerator showed up unannounced.

"They're still not at a high enough level, or I'd have tested them out in our battle. I also haven't decided on the best Skillsets for them yet."

Remilia seemed to not know about his Puppets' growth rate acceleration powers. Otherwise, they'd both be at much higher levels already. Accelerator held his silence.

"But it was fun. If an opportunity arises, we should play again. No, I should be more direct here. Come and play again."

"...Sure." He couldn't say he wasn't still curious about a style of his own Puppet.

"Ah yes. I almost forgot. I didn't get to show it off in our match, but here's a Darkinium M Shard. Consider it a bonus for beating me with just one Puppet."

As it turned out, Remilia was the holder of the obsidian-colored Magic Crystal of Dark.

"To activate it, you put your arms to your sides, palms up, spread your wings high, give a bright smile, and ask 'And Then Will There Be None?'"

(Please refer to the cover image for a better idea)

"And if I don't have wings?" It used to apply to him though.

"Not sure. Pretend you do have them? Let me know how that works out. Now, it's your destiny to head to the mountain in the north next. After that, shouldn't you cut your path to your destiny? For fate is an ever-changing thing."

With that in mind, Accelerator left the Scarlet Devil Mansion. On the way out the front gate, he passed the gatekeeper, Meiling, who suddenly woke up from a nightmare.

"...Wah! Wawah! Not the knives! Don't stab me so..." She looked around and found Accelerator. "Hah! ! O-Oh, it's a guest. Thank goodness. Ahem. So, what'd you need? Sorry, but due to my orders, I can't let you through."

"Weren't you sleeping just now?"

"Eh? It's because the weather's so cheery, I just kind of nodded off. Ack! That's enough talking about me! Anyway, you can't go through. If you try to force your way, you won't win against me."

He won against her.

"A~w. I lost. The mistress is going to be mad at me again~..."

"Don't worry about it. I don't have any more business here. I think." He walked away from the mansion, toward the lake.

"Any more? Yawn~ I wonder what he meant by that..." The gatekeeper dozed off again.

Xxxxx

"It's an outsider! An outsider!" A crow tengu crossed Accelerator's path as he walked closer to the lake. "Ayayaya! If it isn't the famous Accelerator. Man, what a coincidence meeting you here." The tengu turned around and called to him.

Accelerator could only guess what tengus actually looked like, but this clearly just looked like a small girl in a black and white dress and a red tokin on top of her short black hair.

"Oh right. I've got big news for you! Seems like the Liberation Front managed to capture the Kappas' Hideout. What do you think? Makes for an interesting article, huh?" The tengu told him.

The Kappas' Hideout? Was Nitori alright? Well, as the holder of the Waterium M Crystal, she couldn't have gone down that easily. Much less to those weaklings who called themselves the Puppet Liberation Front. But suppose the five brats that Accelerator met at the Human Village were just grunts. There might be stronger members like admins as well. The tengu said the Front managed to capture the Hideout. Accelerator let a little concern show on his face.

"I got it. I want to see for myself. How do I get there?"

"As expected. From here, go down to the bridge at the lake's edge. Stick to the left, and you'll reach Genbu Ravine. You can reach the Hideout from the cave there. Well then! May we meet again somewhere!" She disappeared.

Xxxxx

Accelerator found the cave without issue. Inside the cave, he met a generic kappa in a green hat waiting by a subterranean river.

"It's terrible, terrible!" The kappa clutched onto Accelerator's shirt. "Our hideout has been taken over by the Puppet Liberation Front. They're running wild, doing whatever they want. It's just awful. I'm looking for someone willing to help us, but... You're our sworn friend, so you'll help us, won't you?" Sounded like Nitori told them all about him.

"Ah, I'm willing to participate in some easy Puppet battles." It would be some nice stress relief after those brain racking battles of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which were based mainly on luck, predictions, and hoping his opponents didn't have an answer to his plays. That took a lot of mental stamina that Accelerator would have liked to recover soon.

"That's great! The way to reach the hideout is a little special, but if you ask me, I'll take you whenever you want!"

"Sure, I'm ready now."

"Roger that! Then I'll take you right away!" The kappa grabbed Accelerator's hand and pulled him into the river.

As it turned out, he wasn't ready.

The next thing he knew, he was drenched in river water, groveling on a wooden dock, gasping for his breath. A sudden thought ran through his mind. He brought his hand up to the Puppet head that was supplying electricity to his choker.

It was completely fine. As expected of the Puppet head of a water-dwelling youkai, it was completely waterproof.

He made it to the Kappa's Hideout. Behind him was a lake.

"On scene! This is our hideout. You'll need me to return, right? Let me know when and I'll take you out. I'll leave the Liberation Front to you! I'm cheering for you!"

A small water town hidden in the mountains. The lake itself took up half the town. The rest of the town was filled with numerous single-story houses that surrounded the lake.

Accelerator could clearly make out Nitori battling three fairies on the west side of town, across from the lake. It looked like she was in a bit of a pickle. He was currently on the east side of town.

Skimming his toes across the surface of the lake, holding onto Leukocyte's legs as it flew toward the commotion, Accelerator reached the four Puppeteers in short time.

Surrounding Nitori was an orange-haired fairy in a red dress, a blonde fairy in a white dress, and a brunette fairy in a blue dress. They all looked familiar. Perhaps Accelerator saw some Puppets based on them in the recent past.

"Come on, Miss Kappa. Hand that over to us." He heard the first fairy address Nitori.

"...H~m. I don't know what you mean by "that"." Nitori responded.

"She's right, Sunny. She won't understand if you just say "that"." The second fairy interjected. "We need to get the optical camouflage. With that, we can operate without being seen."

"...Eh?" The first fairy, Sunny, looked shocked.

"Hehehe. That's right." The third fairy jumped in. "Thanks to the camouflage, we can surprise people all we want! And we'll never lose at hide and seek!"

"B-but my ability..." What, was her ability the exact same as the optical camouflage?

"Come on! You said you were looking forward to it too, Sunny." The second fairy brought them back to the point. "Now hurry up and hand over the optical camouflage. If you don't... There's no telling what'll happen to this human!"

Oh, Accelerator had been found out before he could sneak up on them. The fairies redirected their Puppets away from Nitori and toward him instead.

"How rude! You're still battling against me!" Nitori and her Whipcord, the newly Style Changed NitoriP, went to Accelerator's side to back him up. She nodded to him to get ready.

Accelerator called out Besot and Vindictive next to Whipcord to initiate a triple battle. On the fairies' side was a SunnyP, a LunaS, and a StarP.

LunaS's Sanguine Ability changed the weather to Aurora. From what Accelerator could remember, Aurora increased the power of Light attacks while decreasing the power of Dark attacks. Coincidentally, his two offensive Puppets were both Dark-types, so it would seem like an uphill battle.

"Oh, now I remember." Accelerator recalled. "I saw Puppets of you three in the Forest of Magic. You're known as Sunny, Luna, and Star, and your Puppets are all Light-type."

"He~h? Is that so~?"

"Is that really what you think?"

Star and Luna started teasing him.

"Eh? No wait. It's true that all my Puppets are Light-type." Sunny confirmed.

Accelerator ignored their banter and ordered Besot to set up Field Protect. However, when Aurora weather is up, both Field Protect and Field Barrier are set up at once, thus halving both Focus and Spread attacks to Accelerator and Nitori's entire side. Besot therefore saved time and could just attack or switch out the next turn.

"Nice assist!" Nitori was pleased and gave Accelerator a thumbs up.

The fairies' Puppets all attacked next. StarP shot a priority Light-type Over Ray at Vindictive, while SunnyP and LunaS each directed a Nature-type Pollen Mist toward the Water-types Besot and Whipcord. The three defending Puppets survived easily thanks to the Fields, and Vindictive's Rebellion Tome activated as well. In contrast, neither Vindictive nor Whipcord attacked the first turn, choosing to increase their Focus stats instead with Dark Power and Cloudburst, respectively.

A rain cloud gathered above Whipcord and drenched the kappa Puppet, lowering its Speed while raising its Focus Attack and Focus Defense. Complementarily, Vindictive's Speed rose with its Up Tempo. But neither change in Speed mattered too much at the moment. Whipcord with its already low Speed was moving last anyway, and Vindictive still had to deal with the priority Over Ray.

And the Aurora weather was halving Audacity's power to boot. The Fire Puppet would probably need a few more boosts to guarantee a knock out with it.

The next turn saw Besot and Whipcord using their Water priority Aquasonic and Aqua Cutter to break through SunnyP's secondary Fire barrier and take it out of commission before it could attack again.

As expected, StarP continued to shoot Over Ray at the Fire Puppet, but it still wasn't enough to knock it out through the Field Protect. Vindictive subsequently used Aura Drain on StarP and regained almost all of its lost health. The StarP was on its last legs, but it wouldn't survive a priority attack from either of the two Water-type Puppets, regardless of its secondary Water barrier resisting it.

Finally, LunaS could knock out either Besot or Whipcord with its Pollen Mist, but the other would get off scot-free. It targeted Whipcord, considering the enhanced Focus Attack more threatening.

"No problem! I still have two more Puppets with me!" Nitori sent out Lorn, the ChiyuriD, a blonde Puppet in a sailor outfit, who emerged with a splash of water.

Accelerator as well had two more Puppets in reserve. Assuming the fairy trio had six Puppets in total, like a standard team, this was essentially a 7v6 battle, with Accelerator and Nitori holding the advantage. Hence Accelerator decided to use only three of his Puppets during this battle.

Sunny sent out her last Puppet, a SunnyE. It was indeed another Light Puppet. Accelerator didn't know what it could do, but since the LunaS seemed locked into Pollen Mist (it looked to be holding the Good Earrings to boost its Spread Attack in return for only using one Skill while it was out), he planned to target the newcomer just to be on the safe side.

The third turn also went in Accelerator and Nitori's favor.

"Lorn, use Thunderclap!" Lorn emitted a loud crash of thunder to scare the new SunnyE, causing it to flinch.

Of course, Besot finished off StarP right away.

But since SunnyE was unable to move anyway, Accelerator changed Vindictive's target to LunaS at the last second, and blew it away with a reasonably powered, barrier-piercing Audacity, re-halved by Aurora. Each of the fairy trio's lead Puppets were done for.

Luna and Star sent out their last Puppets as well: both were Extra styled Puppets of themselves. A round of notes accompanied LunaE, while a wave of darkness enveloped StarE. So that's what they meant. They told him beforehand that these two weren't Light-types. Accelerator didn't really get what a Dark Puppet was doing on an Aurora team, but it made things easier for him.

Vindictive, being the fastest one in play, used the Fighting-type Aura Drain to eliminate StarE, breaking not only its Dark barrier, but also its secondary Warped barrier. Besot used Lightning Speed on SunnyE and switched out to Leukocyte. Lorn set up a Cloudburst just like its fallen teammate. These two moves were made safe because SunnyE and LunaE focused all their attention on Vindictive. With their collective Aurora-boosted Light attacks, they finally took down the overpowering Fire/Dark Puppet.

Both Accelerator and Nitori had at least one more Puppet in reserve, but they arbitrarily decided to switch the battle format to a double battle to keep it fair. Needless to say, Sunny and Luna did not take that decision well. They didn't like being looked down upon. But, as they were losing, they clearly didn't have any say in the matter.

On the final turn of Aurora, as well as the final turn of Fields, Accelerator and Leukocyte were the first to act. They both posed in the yogic fashion and were imbued with white aura.

"Law of Boundless Space!"

The giant white ball of nothingness descended upon and enveloped LunaE. As the whiteness faded, it revealed the Sound Puppet lying powerless, unable to continue the fight.

SunnyE could still continue and one-shot Leukocyte with the Light-type Atomic Energy, but then Lorn was left completely unharmed. To end the battle, Nitori and Lorn made a synchronized swimming motion and were imbued with a blue aura.

"Diluvial Mere!"

SunnyE was sandwiched between two strong currents of water and lost the rest of its health.

Accelerator and Nitori defeated the Puppet Liberation Front Fairies of Light!

 **Xxxxx**

 **...There are no Triple battles or Double battles in TPDP. There is also no Aurora Veil. The Field skills do not double up during Aurora like this in the actual game. The things that happened in this battle could only happen in a fic.**

 **Once again, these nicknames are brought to you by the lovely Pyrotoz's Random Nickname Generator. So therefore, Remilia became my sort of expy of, or homage to, the dude in charge of that site (Tommy, aka Pyrotoz). Cheers to anyone who may have picked up on that from my introduction speech for her in the last chapter.**

 **I guess Besot was the only nickname I didn't really like at first, but I can't say it doesn't fit Cirno. The most common synonym for it is stupefy. I think I like Vindictive's name the most out of these four. It reminded me of the old school Yugioh card Old Vindictive Magician. And it's a super fit for Mokou. It means vengeful, basically. Don't really have any strong opinions for the other two nicknames, though, but they're cute I guess?**

 **Cheers!**


End file.
